northern front IDF preparing to maneuver with ‘boots on the ground’ in Lebanon as Air Force strikes 280 Hezbollah targets

The Israeli army is making concrete preparations to “enter into the enemy’s territory,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi said as the Israeli Air Force continued pounding Hezbollah targets, striking over 280 sites across Lebanon on Wednesday.

While visiting soldiers of the 7th Armored Brigade during a training exercise on the northern border, Halevi told them: “You can hear the planes up here, we attack all day. Both to prepare the area for the possibility of your entry, and also to continue harming Hezbollah.”

On Wednesday, ahead of a possible ground incursion into Lebanon, the IDF announced the call-up of two reserve brigades to reinforce Israeli troops on the northern border.

“We are preparing the phase of the maneuver, meaning your shoes, the maneuvering boots, enter into the enemy's territory, a village that Hezbollah prepared as a large military outpost, with an underground, with staging points, with launch points to raid into our territory,” Halevi told the soldiers.

“You are coming in much stronger and far more experienced than they are. You will go in, destroy the enemy there, and decisively destroy their infrastructure. These are the things that will enable us to safely return the residents of the north afterward.”

Echoing the army chief’s statements, Northern Command head Maj.-Gen. Uri Gordin said, “We need to change the security situation. We need to be very strongly prepared to enter [Lebanon] in a [ground] maneuver.”

Late on Wednesday afternoon, the IDF announced that around 280 targets had been struck throughout the day, including rocket launchers used to fire missiles on Safed, Nahariya and the Jezreel Valley.

According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 51 people were killed and 223 wounded by Israeli strikes on Wednesday. The numbers don’t distinguish between terrorists and civilians, and the IDF has not yet published casualty numbers on the northern front.

בסגירת מעגל מהירה, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו במרחב תבנין שבדרום לבנון את המשגר ממנו בוצע הירי למרחב ואדי ערה הבוקר>> pic.twitter.com/5QApxrfVHA

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 25, 2024

After warning Lebanese citizens on Monday morning to stay away from Hezbollah infrastructure and weapons, the IDF launched a series of massive airstrikes. Although the intensity of these strikes has since decreased, they have not ceased.

The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah terrorists, weapons warehouses including cruise missiles, launchers and numerous other targets overnight on Tuesday.

The IDF also announced waves of airstrikes targeting southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley – where Hezbollah has stored many of its strategic weapon systems – and the town Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, another Hezbollah stronghold.

An additional series of strikes focused specifically on targets connected to Hezbollah’s intelligence units, with over 60 sites being hit, including headquarters, observation posts and other infrastructure.

60 Hezbollah Intelligence Directorate targets were struck by the IAF.

The strikes eliminated intelligence-gathering tools, command centers, and additional infrastructure used by the terrorist army to build an intelligence situational assessment.

Here you can see all the… pic.twitter.com/Vzhv5JzsR5

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 25, 2024

Among the numerous Israeli strikes, two unusual locations were targeted.

One was an airstrike that, according to Lebanese media, killed four people in a house in Maaysara, some 30 km north of Beirut in the Keserwan area, which hasn’t been targeted by Israeli strikes so far.

The house reportedly belonged to a Hezbollah official who was killed by Israel several months ago. L’Orient Today reported that Hezbollah operatives cordoned off the house after the attack, and speculated that the attack was targeting a member of the official’s family.

Another strike targeted a site in the village Joun, located in the Chouf mountains, around 10 km northeast of Sidon. The Saudi news site al-Hadath said the target was another Hezbollah operative, named Hamed Raed.

Four people were killed there, according to Lebanese authorities.

While Hezbollah previously confirmed the deaths of most of its operatives eliminated over the past 11 months, it has not done so regularly since the pager explosions last week.

The terror group is estimated to have lost hundreds of operatives in the pager and radio explosions last week, as well as in the Israeli airstrikes since then.