Israel has completed a series of extensive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, a military spokesperson said on Friday, attacks which have impacted the Iran-backed group's positioning near the border.
"We continue intensive strikes to hit Hezbollah's deployment close to the northern border," military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement. "It no longer looks as it did on October sixth, nor will it."
Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel at the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, igniting a conflict that has drawn in the heavily armed group and other Iran-aligned factions across the Middle East.
But the violence has largely been contained to areas at the border, shaped by what observers have called unwritten rules of engagement between adversaries that have long threatened each other with catastrophic damage in the event of war.
Israel has said it is not seeking to open a front in the north. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Beirut would be turned "into Gaza" if Hezbollah started an all-out war.
Hagari said the targets of the recent air, tank and artillery strikes included launch pads, military compounds and militant squads.
