The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed photos Monday of a Hezbollah missile being stored in a private home in southern Lebanon, as civilians heeded a warning by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to flee the area.
Earlier, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari had released an infographic showing how Hezbollah uses civilian buildings to hide weapons, and declaring that Israel was determined to destroy those weapons. He urged Lebanese civilians to move far away from such buildings.
Later, Netanyahu released a video in which he urged civilians to leave the area, and said they would be allowed to return to their homes once Israel had completed its mission.
“I have a message for the people of Lebanon: Israel’s war is not with you. It’s with Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said.
Lebanese civilians, apparently taking Netanyahu’s words seriously, soon clogged northbound roads in Lebanon.
Cars sit in traffic as they flee the southern villages amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, in Sidon, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
The IDF said in a statement:
Over the past day (Monday), the IDF conducted precise, intelligence-based strikes on approximately 1,300 Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon in order to remove immediate threats against the State of Israel.
During the strikes, long-range cruise missiles, heavyweight rockets, rockets with warheads capable of carrying 100kg of explosives, short-range rockets, and explosive UAVs were all struck by the IDF.
Hezbollah located its strategic munitions and capabilities inside Lebanese villages and civilian homes, and intended to fire them toward civilians in Israel while endangering the Lebanese civilian population.
As a result of many of the strikes, there were significant secondary explosions caused by Hezbollah’s weapons that were being stored inside the buildings.
In accordance with the situational assessment, the Minister of Defense extended the special situation for the home front to the entire country. At this time, there are no changes to the Home Front Command defensive guidelines. We will immediately update if any changes are made on the relevant platforms.
Unlike the war in Gaza, Israel has stopped short of saying that its goal in Lebanon is to destroy Hezbollah. Rather, it is seeking to push Hezbollah back from the Israeli border and to disarm it significantly, in compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006). Hezbollah is armed, funded, and trained by the Iranian regime.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.