‘Hezbollah is lying to you and sacrificing you’: Israel’s military pounds more than 300 targets, including missiles primed to launch

JERUSALEM – Israel’s air strikes against Hezbollah positions began early Monday, as evidence increasingly mounts of a growing impatience with the situation in the north of the country, and a strong desire to pummel the Iranian proxy. However, Hezbollah appears undeterred as it attempts to strike ever-deeper into Israel.

In a second round of strikes later Monday morning, the Israel Air Force hit targets such as weapons depots which stored rockets or were used for other activities. Prior to these, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari spoke directly to civilians in southern Lebanon and told them to evacuate these areas.

Eyewitnesses who posted on Twitter suggested initial explosions were followed up by much larger secondary ones, giving a clear indication of the kinds of weapons which were stored there. The military said it identified Hezbollah operatives preparing to carry out rocket attacks on Israel.

Absolutely massive. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/5cc5uD9W3S

— FJ (@Natsecjeff) September 23, 2024

As the fighter jets were screaming over the northern border, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, attended an assessment of the readiness of the home front amid widening fighting, remarking, “Ahead of us are days when the public will have to show composure, discipline, and full obedience” to instructions by the Home Front Command.

Civilians received text messages in Arabic, as well as phone calls from a local Lebanese number instructing them to remove themselves from Hezbollah-controlled areas, and long lines of cars could be seen attempting to flee northward to escape the bombing. Lebanese media reported the warning messages were also broadcast on radio stations.

Lebanese citizens in southern Lebanon have now started fleeing the area in large numbers. pic.twitter.com/ubxk3Mn2Kh

— FJ (@Natsecjeff) September 23, 2024

“Hezbollah is lying to you and sacrificing you,” IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in an Arabic message to Lebanese civilians. “Its missiles and drones are more valuable and important to it than you are.”

Like Hamas, Hezbollah stores missiles in civilian homes

Monday also witnessed Hagari present previously unreleased footage of Hezbollah operatives preparing to launch a cruise missile from within a civilian home in a southern Lebanon village. This building was subsequently targeted and destroyed in an airstrike.

The IDF identified the cruise missile as a Russian-made “DR-3,” which appeared to be a variant of the Tupolev Tu-143 drone, also called VR-3. It was also clear that an opening had been created in the building to allow the missile to be fired.

The IDF said the missile was enabled with a payload of up to 300 kilograms of explosives and had a range of up to 200 kilometers – bringing Israel’s densely populated central region well within Hezbollah’s firing range.

Hezbollah has multiple advanced weapons ready to be fired at Israel from within Lebanese houses . @IDF knows where many are, and is striking. Israel has warned Lebanese civilians to get away, for their own safety.
Using civilians houses for fighting is a war crime, and… pic.twitter.com/MhF1HOTiNk

— Jonathan Conricus (@jconricus) September 23, 2024

It is important to remember, however, that while Hezbollah and Hamas do share a number of similarities, not least the Islamic Republic of Iran funding both of them, there are significant differences.

Lebanon used to be a functioning state, with an independent military, judiciary, and parliament. These still exist, although Hezbollah’s tentacles have extended to all parts of Lebanese, civilian, military, and political life.

The country is also not heterogeneous; indeed, it has the largest proportion – approximately 40% – of Christians anywhere in the Middle East. Minorities include Druze, Muslims, Maronites, Armenians and Alawites. There used to be a sizable Jewish population too, although this has dwindled to a few elderly people and is thought to number fewer than 100. The point is, unlike Hamas in Gaza – and large swathes of Judea and Samaria – where there appears to be significant support, Hezbollah and its Iranian backers, are viewed as the interlopers into Lebanese society they are.

Israel and Lebanon – much like Israel and Gaza – used to have good relations. The border separating the two countries was known as the “Good Fence,” a reference still in use up until Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Also, Hezbollah’s support for the al-Assad regime in Syria – another client state of Iran – has similarly not endeared them to the benighted citizens of that country either.

During the later afternoon Monday, Hagari announced the IDF was planning to strike targets in the Bekaa Valley, calling again on Lebanese civilians to leave homes Hezbollah has overrun to store arms to be used against Israel.

Daniel Hagari: In the near future, we will attack in the area of the Beqaa Valley, where Hezbollah stores weapons in civilian buildings – this is a targeted warning: those who are in buildings that have weapons – leave. pic.twitter.com/wZkiAgXobs

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) September 23, 2024

As a post-script, it is unclear – despite the extensive bombing – whether Israel is using this tactic as a way to ensure the breakout of the Third Lebanon War, or to dissuade Hezbollah from firing its missiles even deeper than it already has into Israel. It is unlikely after nearly a year of somewhat limited responses to its provocations of missile and drone strikes against Israeli – mostly civilian targets – Hezbollah will ratchet down now.

However, Iran does not want to put one of its most valuable assets – which it has spent literally decades assembling – in significant danger. Can it pull off the trick of somehow offsetting this, without getting itself embroiled in the kind of regional war many analysts and commentators assume is going to come at some point anyway?