Operation Northern Arrows : From Israel to Hezbollah

"You can hear the planes here; we are attacking all day, both to prepare the ground for the possibility of your entry, but also to continue striking Hezbollah."

"We are not stopping. We will keep attacking and harming them everywhere,."

"To do this, we are preparing for the course of the manoeuvre, and the sense is that your military boots, your manoeuvre boots, will enter enemy territory."

"Your entry there with force… will show (Hezbollah) what it is like to meet a professional combat force."

"You are coming in much stronger than them, much more experienced than them; go in, destroy the enemy there, and go destroy the infrastructure."

"These are the things that will allow us to safely repatriate the residents of the north later."

Troop briefing: Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi

Israeli Merkava tanks are positioned in the north of Israel near the border with Lebanon on October 15, 2023. Photo: AFP

 

A second precision strike in as many days was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in Beirut. This one eliminated Ibrahim Qubaisi, head of Hezbollah's missile and rocket array. The day before, the earlier strike attempted the assassination of the third-ranking Hezbollah commander, Ali Karaki in the very same region.  Qubaisi, according to the IDF, held a number of key positions within Hezbollah.

 

He "was responsible for the planning and execution of many terrorist actions against the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli citizens", declared an IDF statement. He had planned the kidnapping of three IDF soldiers in October of 2000, killed during or after their abduction. Four years later, as part of a terrorist release deal with Hezbollah, their remains were returned to Israel. 

 

When the attack was launched targeting Qubaisi, he was with other Hezbollah operatives, five of whom were killed, others injured in the airstrike. In a 24-hour period the Israeli Air Fore struck over 1,500 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley; part of "Operation Northern Arrows". This operation has been long in coming. Hezbollah has been sending hundreds of rockets into northern Israel for close to a year, necessitating the evacuation of over 60,000 Israelis. 

 

Hezbollah could not be persuaded, even by return Israeli fire into Lebanon over that period of time, that it should stop bombing across the border into Israel. A year is a long time to wait out a period of constant shelling for people displaced and anxious to return to their homes. Now, when the current operation has been concluded and Hezbollah's rocketry has been stilled, Israelis will be able to return home. 

 

It won't seem the same; vast acreages of forest and fields have been burned as a result of the Hezbollah rockets.

 

A cloud of smoke erupts during an Israeli airstrike on the village of Sujud in southern Lebanon on Sept. 25, 2024. — RABIH DAHER/AFP via Getty Images

 

In turn, thousands of Lebanese have evacuated from the south, following instructions from the IDF to Lebanese civilians to move from their homes where Hezbollah has munitions stored. Like its sister terrorist group Hamas, Hezbollah too excels in putting ordinary Lebanese in harm's way to protect themselves against instant repercussions from Israel returning fire from where it has been launched. 

 

Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanese territory in the Bekaa Valley have also been struck, when more than 100 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel.  

"[Israel does not want to send troops in to Lebanon but is prepared o do] whatever necessary [to halt the Hezbollah rocket fire that has driven tens of thousands of Israelis from northern Israel]."

"Israel is] not eager to start any ground invasion anywhere."

"We prefer a diplomatic solution. But if it's not working, we are  using other methods to show the other side that we mean business."

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon