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Israel Stages Heavy Airstrikes in Lebanon as Hezbollah Launches Drone Attack

23 August 2024, Lebanon, Qliyaa: Heavy black smoke from an Israeli airstrike billows from the Lebanese southern border town of Khiam. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 August 2024, Lebanon, Qliyaa: Heavy black smoke from an Israeli airstrike billows from the Lebanese southern border town of Khiam. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israel Stages Heavy Airstrikes in Lebanon as Hezbollah Launches Drone Attack

23 August 2024, Lebanon, Qliyaa: Heavy black smoke from an Israeli airstrike billows from the Lebanese southern border town of Khiam. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 August 2024, Lebanon, Qliyaa: Heavy black smoke from an Israeli airstrike billows from the Lebanese southern border town of Khiam. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Israel launched a series of intense airstrikes in southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah.
The army said Hezbollah was planning to launch a heavy barrage of rockets and missiles toward Israel. The group had been promising to retaliate for Israel's assassination of Fouad Shukr, a top commander late last month.
Air raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel's Ben-Gurion international airport began diverting incoming flights and delaying takeoffs.
Soon afterwards, Hezbollah announced it had launched an attack on Israel with a “large number of drones” as an initial response to Shukr’s killing in a strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.

Shukr's death in the airstrike was quickly followed by the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which led to vows of reprisal against Israel by Iran.

Hezbollah said Sunday’s attack was targeting “a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later” as well as “targeting a number of enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome platforms.”

Last week, Israel’s defense minister said he was moving more troops toward the Lebanese border in anticipation of possible fighting with the Iranian-backed group.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said early Sunday: “‏In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the (Israeli military) is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians.”

“We can see that Hezbollah is preparing to launch an extensive attack on Israel, while endangering the Lebanese civilians," he added, without providing details. ”‏We warn the civilians located in the areas where Hezbollah is operating to move out of harm’s way immediately for their own safety,” he added.

Israeli media cited the Israel Airports Authority for news of the flight cancellations. Flight-tracking data showed at least two El Al flights swinging far south and diverting after the announcement.

Israel's cabinet was to meet at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the war with Hamas erupted on Oct. 7 with a Hamas cross-border attack. Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire nearly daily, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border and raising fears that the fighting could escalate into all-out war. But until Sunday, both sides have been careful to avoid a broader conflagration.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.