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Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant weren’t kidding around. Hezbollah launched 140 missiles at northern Israel overnight, likely their attempt to respond to Operation Grim Beeper and the 3000+ casualties from Pagercide. Israel had warned that it would escalate matters if need be.
They delivered on their promise moments ago:
Israel carried out what its military called a “targeted strike” on Beirut on Friday afternoon.
It offered no further immediate details, but explosions could be heard from the city’s southern suburbs.
Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV reported that a drone fired several missiles on the heavily-populated area known as Dahiyeh.
Dahiyeh is not just a “heavily populated” suburb; it’s a stronghold of Hezbollah and the seat of ifs political power. Israel hit Dahiyeh earlier this summer too, after Hezbollah thought the US would prevent a direct attack on its top leadership:
Lebanon’s Hezbollah did not clear its sensitive sites or evacuate top officials in Beirut’s suburbs before this week’s attack that killed a top commander because it thought U.S.-led diplomacy would keep Israel from striking the area, security sources close to the group and diplomats said.
Hezbollah’s impression was that Israel would not hit the southern suburbs, or Dahiyeh, a heartland of support for the Shi’ite Muslim group, as it believed Israeli forces would adhere to unofficial red lines both sides have generally observed in the conflict that has escalated during the Gaza War, they said.
The IDF warned the Lebanese yesterday that this would be the next step in the war, doing low-level supersonic flyovers and dropping flares to underscore the point.
