‘Half of Hezbollah commanders in south Lebanon are eliminated,’ DM Gallant declares

The intense cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah continued on Wednesday, as Israel Defense Forces responded forcefully to the escalated attacks over the Passover holiday.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF had killed about half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon so far and vowed to do everything possible to return Israeli residents to their homes.

On Wednesday evening, the IDF announced its troops carried out “offensive action,” striking approximately 40 targets in the area surrounding the town of Ayta al-Sha’ab within several minutes. This action is considered one of the broadest and most intense waves of airstrikes since the start of the conflict with the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.

Israeli fighter jets and artillery forces carried out a wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the military says.

According to the IDF, the some 40 targets in Ayta ash-Shab were hit by aircraft and artillery shelling within several minutes.

The… pic.twitter.com/gwMyURrXMM

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 24, 2024

IDF aircraft and artillery struck Hezbollah storage facilities, rocket launchers and terrorist infrastructure near the town, which was defined as “extensively used for terrorist purposes” and has struck “dozens of the organization's terrorist facilities and infrastructures,” according to the IDF.

“There is continuous offensive action by IDF forces in all of southern Lebanon as well as in other parts of Lebanon. The operational results are very impressive,” Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the IDF Northern Command following an operational update and a tour of the border.

“Half of the Hezbollah commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated, the other half are hiding and abandoning the area to the IDF operation,” Gallant added after the IDF eliminated two significant Hezbollah commanders on Tuesday.

עשרות מטרות תוך מספר דקות;
מוקדם יותר היום כוחות צה"ל תקפו עשרות תשתיות טרור באמצעות מטוסי קרב וארטילריה במרחב עייתא א-שעב שבדרום לבנון pic.twitter.com/mYOOLkD9zR

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 24, 2024

A source close to Hezbollah leadership rejected Gallant’s statements in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today.

“This type of propaganda is usually targeted at their own people, at Israeli settlers, at an attempt to boost their morale as the war is ongoing,” he said, adding that “not even five Hezbollah commanders have been killed since Oct.8,” the source noted.

During the funeral of Hussein Azqoul, one of the commanders who was eliminated, Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah confirmed that Azqoul was responsible for the development of Hezbollah’s drone and missile capabilities, according to L’Orient Today.

Gallant vowed that the army was “working on several options to enable the residents of the north to return to their homes. In the operational aspect, the coming period will be decisive.”

The intensity of the strikes on Wednesday and the unusual description of its actions as “offensive” in the IDF’s statements has led to fears that Israel was about to start a ground incursion into Lebanon.

However, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, told the AFP that his organization didn’t detect any ground crossing on Wednesday.

Israeli fighter jets struck Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon last night, the military says.

The sites included infrastructure in Maroun al-Ras and an observation post in Markaba, according to the IDF. Earlier in the day, a building the IDF says is used by the terror group was… pic.twitter.com/B1SogKYgrY

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 25, 2024

On Thursday morning, the IDF announced it had carried out another wave of strikes, this time targeting “terrorist infrastructures … in the Maroun al-Ras area, and an observation post … in the Markaba area in southern Lebanon.”

“Also, IDF forces carried out artillery fire yesterday (Wed.) to remove [imminent] threats in several areas in southern Lebanon.”