Israel has revealed its special operations commandos have been destroying Hezbollah terror cells inside Lebanon for the past year — and that nearly 3,000 terrorists were ready to invade the Jewish state after Oct. 7.
Israeli forces have carried out 70 small raids that have destroyed Hezbollah tunnels and weapons bases in southern Lebanon since the beginning of the war, according to military spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The revelation comes just hours after Israel said it launched a ground invasion of its northern neighbor, which it described as “limited” in scope and designed to destroy Hezbollah’s ability to strike northern Israel.
“Our soldiers entered Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure; exposed Hezbollah’s hidden weapons caches and seized and destroyed the weapons including advanced, Iranian-made weapons,” Hagari said of the previous attacks.
He added: “The operations that we de-classified tonight are only a small number of dozens of operations that we will reveal going forward, including the destruction of Hezbollah’s strategic assets and capabilities.”
The raids also uncovered detailed plans by Hezbollah to enter Israel and carry out an attack similar to the horrific attack by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel a year ago, the military spokesman added.
The ground raids would continue until the tens of thousands of uprooted Israelis living near the border were able to return home safely, Hagari vowed.
“We’re not going to Beirut. We’re not going to the cities in southern Lebanon. We are focusing on the area of those villages next to our border,” he added.
The release of the footage and evidence uncovered during the raids came just hours after Hezbollah retaliated to Israel’s incursion by firing off dozens of rockets — including targeted attacks on the Mossad spy agency and a military headquarter base near Tel Aviv.
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Some 30 missiles were launched from Lebanon into the Galilee region of northern Israel just hours after Israeli forces launched its “targeted ground raids” against Hezbollah overnight, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Iran-backed militant group later boasted it had used new “Fadi 4” missiles to attack Mossad and the Glilot military base, which is where the Israeli army’s intelligence unit is headquartered on Tel Aviv’s outskirts.
In its first statement since Israel announced the start of ground operations, Hezbollah’s spokesman said the group’s firing of the medium-range missiles toward central Israel “is only the beginning.”
Hezbollah fighters were also ready “to have direct confrontation with enemy forces that dare to or try to enter Lebanon to inflict casualties among them,” the spokesman, Mohammed Afif, warned.
It comes after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of nearly two dozen Lebanese communities near the border first thing Tuesday after announcing the start of “limited” ground operations against Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah operatives are using the civilian environment and you as a human shield to organize to carry out attacks,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, warned in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesperson, said troops were conducting “localized ground raids” on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to ensure that Israeli citizens could return to their homes in the north.
The targets posed an “immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”
Anticipating even more Hezbollah rocket attacks, the Israeli army also announced new restrictions on public gatherings and shuttered beaches close to the border region.
The militant group, however, quickly denied that Israeli troops had entered Lebanon.
The incursion follows weeks of heavy blows by Israel against Hezbollah — including an airstrike south of Beirut last week that killed its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
With Post wires
