Israel hits 300 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health on Monday asked hospitals in Southern Lebanon to suspend to make room for incoming casualties from the strikes. Israeli forces had already destroyed 300 targets as of early Monday morning and more strikes were underway, the Israel Defense Forces said. Israel launched the attacks after urging civilians to leave areas where Hezbollah was operating.

Why is Israel carrying out these strikes? The Southern Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah on Sunday attacked civilian locations across northern Israel, forcing hundreds of Israeli citizens to spend their night in bomb shelters, according to the IDF. Thousands of Israeli children were staying in bomb shelters instead of going to school on Monday, the military added.

So is Israel just retaliating now? Israel has routinely carried out preemptive strikes against Hezbollah targets in recent weeks, said IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. Those strikes aimed to destroy rocket launching sites before they were used to attack Israel.

Some of those preemptive strikes have targeted civilian locations where Hezbollah has embedded its rocket launching equipment, said IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Even so, Israel’s preemptive strikes have always been intelligence-based and precise, Hagari said.

Last week, Hezbollah fighters’ pagers and walkie-talkies across Southern Lebanon exploded. The attacks reportedly killed dozens of militants and injured more than 3,000. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the attack, which he called a severe blow to his organization. Israel has not publicly commented on the incident.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about how Hezbollah presents a bigger threat to Israel than Hamas.