Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah and Iran that Sunday morning’s heavy air strikes in Lebanon were “not the end of the story.”
In a statement to the Cabinet, Netanyahu pointed out that these attacks “eliminated thousands of short-range missiles aimed at our citizens and forces in the Galilee region.” He further claimed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) successfully intercepted all Hezbollah drones targeting a critical area near Tel Aviv, which is also home to the Mossad headquarters, state-run Kan TV reported.
Before dawn, about 100 Israeli warplanes bombed “hundreds of armed launchers and thousands of launch tubes, mainly against northern Israel,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.
Hagari described the operation as a “preemptive strike” designed to neutralize a larger threat, noting that most of the rockets and drones fired by Hezbollah were intercepted.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing 320 rockets at several military sites in northern Israel, calling it the “first phase” of its retaliation for the killing of senior politician Fouad Shokor in Beirut last month. The group also confirmed drone attacks on central Israel, claiming they caused damage to infrastructure.
The Israel Defense Forces denied that any military base had been damaged, and no casualties were reported on the Israeli side, except for a woman who suffered minor injuries from shrapnel.
