IDF says it killed two Hezbollah commanders
The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed Moustafa al-Haj Ali, a commander of the Houla Front in Hezbollah in strikes. Ali was responsible for hundreds of missile attacks towards northern Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces added.
The IDF also killed Mohammad Ali Hamdan, a Hezbollah anti-tank unit commander, adding that its air force had also struck ammunition depots in the Dahiyeh suburb of the capital Beirut and weapons storage depots and other military infrastructure in souther Lebanon on Wednesday.
Destruction like Gaza or civil war? Netanyahu’s warning adds to questions about Israel’s goals in Lebanon
New divisions sent to join an expanding ground invasion, troops raising a flag outside a border village and an unmistakable warning to Lebanese civilians: Israel is sending increasingly mixed signals about the goals of a military operation it had insisted was limited.
Concerns about the country’s plans mounted Wednesday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Lebanese people either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like the Gaza Strip.
For many observers, this amounted to a choice between civil war or the same fate as that of Palestinians in the defeated and bombarded enclave.
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video address delivered Tuesday in English. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
