Illustrative image.
Hezbollah escalated its attacks against Israel on March 9, hitting a key satellite station in the heart of the country with rockets.
The SES satellite communication relay station, located in the Valley of Elah to the south of the city of Tel Aviv, was wrecked by the rocket attack, according to videos posted to social networks. The station contains some 120 satellite dishes of various sizes, and despite its commercial nature it is alleged to be involved in military activities.
The rocket fire marked the deepest attack in Israel carried out by Hezbollah since the group resumed military operations against Israel last week after the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran.
Hezbollah announced more than 20 attacks with rockets, drones and other weapons during the day, confirming that it hit a “satellite communications station” in the Valley of Elah, as well as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command headquarters in the city of Ramle near Tel Aviv, known as Rehavam Base, among other targets.
Notably, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also claimed responsibility for the attack on Valley of Elah, claiming that the satellite station there was used to link up IDF fighter jets and drones.
Click to see full-size image. (Telegram)
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said that a total of 16 people were lightly hurt in Hezbollah’s missile attack on the center of the country.
Commenting on Hezbollah’s successful attacks, the IDF said that a number of what he described as “long-range projectiles” were fired from Lebanon. Some of the missiles were intercepted by air defenses and others were allowed to hit open areas, it added.
The military acknowledged that one missile impacted in central Israel, and the “circumstances of the incident are under investigation.”
Separately, the IDF announced that it had intercepted dozens of Hezbollah drones and struck dozens of the group’s rocket launchers in southern Lebanon in recent days.
The escalation by Hezbollah came as the IDF began expanding its ground operations in southern Lebanon, the heartland of the group.
Early in the day, the military said in a statement that it pushed deeper into the region as part of its “enhanced forward defense posture.”
Troops of the 7th Armored Brigade, under the 36th Division, raided the Rab al-Thalathine area, west of the Israeli border settlement of Misgav Am, with the aim of locating and clearing the Lebanese settlement of Hezbollah infrastructure and operatives, the military added, noting that intense strikes hit the area before the troops began advancing.
In a statement addressing recent operations in Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF killed a Hezbollah regional division commander in an airstrike overnight, and that over a million Lebanese civilians have adhered to Israeli evacuation warnings.
According to the defense minister’s office, during an assessment at the IDF Northern Command, Katz was informed that 650,000 Lebanese have evacuated Beirut’s southern suburbs, a known Hezbollah stronghold, and another 500,000 have left southern Lebanon.
“In addition, the minister was updated on the elimination of the commander of Hezbollah’s Nasr Unit, Abu Hussein Ra’ab, during an IDF strike earlier tonight,” Katz’s office said in the statement.
The IDF said on March 9 that some 300 members of Hezbollah and its allies have been killed since hostilities intensified last week. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry said that at least 394 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, including 83 children. Israel from its side has so far lost two soldiers.
The war in Lebanon will likely continue even after the end of the American-Israeli war on Iran, which is expected to last for a few more weeks.
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burning the beast as the resistance gouges out the serpents eyes. karma is so wonderful. z
shitrael, a shitty country for a shitty people