Illustrative image.
Hezbollah launched more than 150 rockets in addition to an unknown number of drones at targets in northern Israel over the night of March 11 and 12, with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announcing that the launches were a part of a joint operation.
In a series of statements, Hezbollah said it targeted “the settlements that had been warned to evacuate within a 5-kilometer area” of the border, along with a number of Israeli military sites located as deep into northern Israel as the port city of Haifa and the town of Safad.
The group said that the launches were a part of a new series of operations, codenamed “Devoured Straw,” after a phrase from the Quran.
As Hezbollah was launching rockets and drones, a number of ballistic missiles were fired from Iran at central, northern, and southern Israel.
The IRGC later announced that the missile strike was a “joint and integrated operation” with Hezbollah. In a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency, the guards said that they had launched several ballistic missiles, while Hezbollah launched drones and rockets at over 50 targets in Israel.
This was the first time such a joint operation has been officially announced since the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran, which saw Hezbollah resuming attacks in support of the Islamic Republic.
Multiple impacts were reported in northern Israel amid the joint operation. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) didn’t provide details on the rocket and drone attacks carried out by Hezbollah, but said that all ballistic missiles launched from Iran were intercepted
Additional launches were reported by Hebrew media later, including “long-range rockets” from Lebanon, with warnings sounding in the city of Tel Aviv in central Israel. There were also reports of impacts.
In the first monuments of the operation, Hebrew media reported that a man was lightly wounded in the town of Bi’ina in northern Israel. It is unclear if there were any additional casualties. IDF censorship has been extremely strict since the start of the war, unlike previous confrontations.
In an initial response, the IDF launched strikes against the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah more known as Dahiyah. Earlier in the day, the military said it had so far struck over 70 targets there during the war with Iran, including demolishing 50 multi-story buildings used by the group.
Israeli strikes on Lebanon have so far have killed 634 people, wounded 1,586 others, and uprooted 700,000 more, according to Lebanese authorities.
The latest joint operation was surprising considering that all assessments before the war suggested that Hezbollah’s capabilities were heavily degraded. The operation will likely encourage the IDF to move forwards with its plan to invade southern Lebanon. A ground battle may be, however, exactly what Hezbollah is waiting for.
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seems iran’s terms to end their attacks on some of the world’s largest oil,gas/fertilizer trade are several fold. evict us military forces from the middle east. end the abraham accords, put a final end to american petrodollar hegemony, end all sanction on iran etc very ambitious goals. they may not succeed in all but it seems they are willing to die trying. i hear some people say: “iranians love martyrdom more than psionists fear death”