Israel’s military said today that Israel has been put on high alert for a wider conflict after it announced it had killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, and also hoped his alleged death would prompt the group to change course.
“We hope this will change Hezbollah’s actions,” the lieutenant colonel said Nadav Soshani at a press briefing after the military said it had killed Nasrallah.
But he said it would still take time to reduce Iran-backed Hezbollah’s capabilities.
“We have seen Hezbollah launch attacks against us for a year. It is safe to assume that she will continue to launch her attacks against us or try to do so,” he said.
Shoshani said no new instructions have been given to Israeli citizens regarding preparedness on the home front, as current instructions already put much of the country on high alert.
The role of Iran
“Hezbollah has been escalating this for a year … Iran is obviously behind it, it’s no secret. It supports Hamas, it supports Hezbollah and other proxies. He even went so far as to directly attack us in April,” he said.
“So are we ready for a wider scale-up? Yes. We are in a larger escalation, a war on many fronts, for a year. Our forces are on high alert, our intelligence services are up and looking for these kinds of threats,” he said.
Hezbollah headquarters hit
Nasrallah was targeted while at Hezbollah’s main headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh.
The headquarters is underground, under residential buildings in Dahiyeh, the IDF says.
“The strike was carried out while top Hezbollah officials were at their headquarters and were involved in coordinating terrorist acts against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the Israeli military says.
“He was responsible for directing and carrying out terrorist attacks around the world”
“Following accurate information from the IDF and the Israeli security system, IAF fighter jets carried out a targeted attack on the central headquarters of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, which was underground embedded under a residential building in the Dahiye district of Beirut. The strike was carried out while Hezbollah’s senior hierarchy was operating from headquarters and organizing terrorist activities against the citizens of the State of Israel,” the official IDF statement said.
“During Hassan Nasrallah’s 32-year tenure as Hezbollah Secretary General, he (s.a.w.) was responsible for the murder of many Israeli civilians and soldiers, as well as the planning and execution of thousands of terrorist acts. He was responsible for directing and executing terrorist attacks around the world in which citizens of various nationalities were murdered. Nasrallah was the central decision-maker and strategic leader of the organization,” the IDF added.
“The terrorist organization Hezbollah, led by Hassan Nasrallah, joined the terrorist organization Hamas in the war against the State of Israel on October 8. Since then, Hezbollah has continued its continuous and unprovoked attacks against the citizens of the State of Israel, dragging the State of Lebanon and the entire region into a wider escalation.
The IDF will continue to operate against anyone who promotes and engages in terrorism against the State of Israel and its people,” the IDF statement concluded.
“A message to anyone who threatens Israel”
Israel’s Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said after the military officially confirmed it had killed Hassan Nasrallah that “the message to anyone who threatens the citizens of the State of Israel is simple – we will know how to catch him.”
Source: RES-MPE
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