Hezbollah after major attack: Did not want to hit civilians

Hezbollah in Lebanon fires hundreds of rockets at Israel. The situation stabilizes quickly. The Hezbollah leader assures that an attack on Tel Aviv airport, for example, was not planned.

The head of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia has adopted a relatively cautious tone following a large-scale rocket attack on Israel. The attack on Sunday morning with more than 300 rockets was not intended to hit any civilian targets in Israel, nor Tel Aviv airport or the Ministry of Defense, said Hassan Nasrallah. “Our aim from the beginning was not to attack civilians, but military targets.”

In his usual harsh rhetoric against Israel, Nasrallah also said that attacks on Israel by Iran and the Houthi militia in Yemen were still imminent. Hezbollah would also reserve the option of further attacks. However, the response to the killing of military commander Fuad Shukr by Israel a good two weeks ago has been completed for now – and Lebanon can “breathe a sigh of relief”.

Hezbollah waited so long to carry out the attack in order to put psychological pressure on Israel and to give negotiations in the Gaza war a chance, said Nasrallah. It decided to attack the Glilot military base near Tel Aviv. Israel, for its part, had attacked targets in southern Lebanon shortly before – as an “act of self-defense.”

Three people were killed in Lebanon. According to military sources, one soldier was killed in Israel. According to media reports, the 21-year-old was hit by parts of an Israeli anti-aircraft missile on a naval boat.

In the attack early Sunday morning, Israel’s army said it had recognized “the immediate danger to the citizens of the State of Israel” and had begun attacking numerous targets in southern Lebanon.

Around 100 fighter planes attacked, according to Israel’s army. The missile defense system, navy and air force were involved. The army destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at northern Israel and “removed many other threats,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But this is “not the end of the story,” he said at the start of a special government session.

Nasrallah also said that the Israeli attacks began about half an hour before the Hezbollah attacks began. Lebanese security sources said Israel had attacked at least 40 targets in southern Lebanon. Israel’s warplanes had hit electricity and water facilities, among other things, reported the Lebanese state news agency NNA and security sources.

An Israeli military spokesman said Hezbollah planned to fire at least some missiles at central Israel, which would have represented a serious escalation. Hezbollah has so far mainly targeted targets near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

The New York Times quoted a Western intelligence official as saying that Israel’s attack was aimed at rocket launchers in Lebanon, which were programmed to be fired at 5 a.m. local time (4 a.m. CEST) towards Tel Aviv in central Israel.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, its ally Hezbollah has been attacking targets in northern Israel. Israel’s military, in turn, regularly attacks targets in the neighboring country, sometimes deep inland. There have been dozens of civilian deaths on both sides of the border, and the border region has resembled a combat zone for months.

Israeli analyst Ronen Bergman wrote on the news portal “Ynet” that, given the lack of progress in negotiations on a ceasefire in the Gaza war, Hezbollah has come to the conclusion that the time has come for its revenge on Israel. Hamas had announced the evening before that Israel was insisting on its demands in the indirect talks.

There have been fears of an even greater escalation in the region since Hezbollah commander Shukr and Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya were killed in Iran at the end of July. Iran and Hezbollah – Tehran’s most important ally in the region – then announced retaliation. Hezbollah said it had completed the “first phase” of its retaliatory attack.

Presumably, in a second phase, the Houthis in Yemen or militias loyal to Iran in Iraq and Syria could also attack Israel. The Houthis praised Hezbollah’s “great and courageous attack”. Its ally Hamas spoke of a “slap in the face” of the Israeli government. A possible second phase of retaliation will depend primarily on the course of the Gaza negotiations.