The Israeli military said its 100 fighter jets struck over 120 Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon — including Iran-backed militant group’s elite Radwan forces — within an hour on Oct 7 as part of its extensive aerial operation against the group.
The Israel offensive came after Hezbollah recently claimed responsibility for a series of missile attacks targeting northern Israel, including areas near the city of Haifa.
"The Israeli Air Force conducted an extensive aerial operation and struck more than 120 terror targets in southern Lebanon barely in 60 minutes," the military said in a statement on Oct 7, adding, “most of the targets belonged to the group's elite Radwan forces and other units.”
Meanwhile, the IAF on X shared a video of fighter jets being rolled out to carry out the airstrikes.
“In a wide air flight, 100 Air Force planes attacked more than 120 terrorist targets of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Air Force planes completed a large-scale aerial flight in southern Lebanon,” read the post.
"Under the precise intelligence guidance of the Intelligence Division and led by the Northern Command and the Operations Division, 100 fighter jets attacked for an hour, over 120 terrorist targets of units in the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” it added.
However, the military or IAF did not say or confirm casualties, if any, in the latest attacks.
According to IAF, the warplanes targeted geographic units of the southern front, the Radwan force locations, the missile and rocket array, and the intelligence headquarters of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
These attacks are in addition to a series of attacks designed to deepen the damage to Hezbollah's command, control, and firing capabilities, and to assist the maneuvering ground forces to achieve their goals, said IAF in a statement, adding, “The air raids followed a series of attacks meant to weaken Hezbollah’s command capabilities and assist Israel’s ground forces in advancing their objectives.”
The Israeli army also said it would expand its operations against Hezbollah to Lebanon's coast south of the Al-Awali river, and warned people to stay away from the shore in the area.
“The army will soon operate in the maritime area against Hezbollah's terrorist activities south of the Al-Awali river,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement on social media.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's government on Oct 7 said in a statement that more than 400,000 people had fled an Israeli escalation against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah across the border into Syria in less than two weeks.
Pertinently, over 300,000 of those who escaped between Sep 23 to Sep 28 were Syrians returning to their war-torn country, while over 102,000 were Lebanese, according to the government crisis unit.
