A screenshot from the video released by the IDF which claims that Hezbollah has been using Lebanese civic infrastructure in the southern part of the nation as a terror launchpad against Israel. (Image: IDF)
The IDF said Hezbollah is responsible for the suffering of civilians in Lebanon as they built its terror network within population centres.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared a video detailing recent strikes deep within Lebanon, accusing Hezbollah of concealing its weapons in civilian areas and building terror networks underneath their homes.
“For the last 20 years, Hezbollah built its terror network within population centres in Lebanon – primarily throughout southern Lebanon, an area that they turned almost entirely into a launch pad to attack Israel,” the IDF said in a social media post on X.
“Hezbollah doesn’t want you to watch this video. And they really don’t want you to share it,” it further added, sharing locations in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah has built terror bases.
“Hezbollah intentionally built two important warehouses in the heart of the civilian population, 100 metres away from a mosque, 150 metres away from a medical clinic, 200 metres away from a Lebanese school,” the IDF claimed in their video.
The IDF’s video appears to be an effort to ward off criticism over attacks in populated areas in Lebanon.
Citing Israeli intelligence officials, the IDF claimed that there’s Hezbollah terror asset hidden inside in every two to three homes in southern Lebanon and accused the group of turning the region into a launchpad for attacking Israel.
Israel flatly rejected on Thursday a push led by key backer the United States for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, vowing to keep fighting Hezbollah militants “until victory”.
Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages.
For the fourth time this week, the Israeli military conducted a strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, which the Israeli military said killed the head of the group’s drone unit.
The Lebanese health ministry said two people were killed in the strike.
It said 60 people had been killed nationwide over the previous 24 hours, among 1,540 killed since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began last October.
The Israeli military said two barrages of 40 to 45 rockets each had been fired from Lebanon into Israel on Thursday, with many of them intercepted and no reports of casualties.
Hezbollah said the first barrage targeted defence industry complexes near the port city of Haifa, while the second targeted the northern town of Safed.
Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive, according to an army statement.
Israeli strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday — by far the deadliest day of violence in Lebanon not just in the latest escalation, but since the 1975-1990 civil war.
For many on both sides of the border, the violence has sparked bitter memories of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
According to the UN, Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon had by Wednesday forced 90,000 people to flee their homes in traditional Hezbollah strongholds to safer areas elsewhere in the tiny Mediterranean country.
Lebanon’s disaster management unit said more than 31,000 had fled to neighbouring Syria.
