Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss / August 25, 2024
Hezbollah launched its retaliatory attacks against Israel for the assassination of its senior commander, Fouad Shukr, targeting several military bases and Israel’s cyber warfare Unit 8200. Here’s what you need to know.
After almost a month of anticipation following Israel’s assassination of Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah’s top military commander, the Lebanese group declared on Sunday that it had concluded the first phase of its retaliation. According to Hezbollah’s first statement, its fighters launched a barrage of hundreds of rockets and kamikaze drones on “important Israeli military targets.”
Hezbollah detailed in a statement that it had launched 320 Katyusha rockets on Israeli positions in order to “clear the way for the drones to cross safely towards the target in the depth of the entity [Israel],” adding that the operation was completed “with success.”
Israeli media quoted the Israeli army saying that Hezbollah’s attack is “thought to have targeted the Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv,” which would mean that the attack reached some 100 kilometers across the border.
Israel says it disabled a larger attack, Hezbollah denies
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had launched a “preemptive attack” against Hezbollah after “detecting preparations to launch rockets against Israel.” The army added that its positions and bases were not hurt and that it had “stopped a larger attack that Hezbollah was planning.” The Israeli army also said that the attack it had disabled included some 6,000 rockets that were prepared to launch at Israel, including long-range ballistic missiles. The army also claimed that its strikes had destroyed “thousands of rocket launchpads.”
Lebanese authorities confirmed that a large number of Israeli strikes targeted southern Lebanese towns and reached as far as 100 kilometers into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah denied Israeli claims regarding the targeting of thousands of rockets and launchpads in a later statement, saying that “all the drones left their bases in their appointed time and crossed the border safely towards that target,” asserting that Israel’s claims were “baseless.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday that Israel’s strikes on Lebanon on Sunday morning were “another step to change the situation in the north and return [Israeli] residents safely to their homes.”
Following the Sunday attack, a number of local authorities of Israeli towns in the north declared that they would boycott the Israeli government’s instructions until Israeli security is restored in the north.
Israel declared a state of emergency in the center of the country and in the Tel Aviv region following the Hezbollah attack, which has included closing the Ben Gurion Airport. Israeli authorities later lifted the emergency instructions and reopened the airport.
The Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported that Israel had sent a message to a number of countries indicating that Israel attacked Hezbollah’s targets on Sunday but did not want to widen the war, asserting that if Hezbollah is satisfied with its response, then it can consider the dossier of Fuad Shukr’s assassination closed.
Nasrallah: Hezbollah may still use long-range ballistic missiles in the future
The secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a live speech on Sunday that Hezbollah had delayed its response to Israel’s assassination of Shukr to give a chance for ceasefire talks.
Nasrallah’s speech, which was announced by Hezbollah in a statement following Sunday’s attack on Israel, was scheduled previously as an annual speech to mark a Shiite religious occasion. Hezbollah’s statement at 6 p.m. local time clarified the details of Sunday’s operation, responding to Israel’s narrative regarding the day’s events.
According to Nasrallah, Hezbollah had delayed its retaliation to Israel’s strike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district and the assassination of Shukr on July 31 due to the ceasefire talks that began in mid-August, since “the entire purpose of [the Lebanese] front is to stop the aggression on Gaza.”
“After it became clear that Netanyahu was adding new conditions and that the Americans were complicit, we concluded that there was no longer any point in delaying our response,” Nasrallah added.
The retaliatory attack, according to Nasrallah, targeted the headquarters of Israel’s military intelligence branch, which includes Israel’s cyber warfare corps Unit 8200 in the Glilot area, some 110 kilometers from the Lebanese border and only 1.5 kilometers from the edge of Tel Aviv.
The choice of the target, Nasrallah said, was due to its connection to Shukr’s assassination, its proximity to Tel Aviv, and its military and non-civilian nature.
Nasrallah also denied Israeli claims that Israel had preemptively destroyed thousands of missiles that the Israeli media alleged were meant to strike Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport, which Nasrallah regarded as “all lies.” Nasrallah asserted that the launching sites targeted on Sunday morning had been evacuated earlier in the war and were not operational at the time of the strike. Hezbollah had cleared these locations of long-range ballistic missiles following the organization’s decision not to use them during this round of the war, although Nasrallah asserted that they may be used by the organization in the future.
Nasrallah concluded his address by asserting that Hezbollah would assess the impact of Sunday’s operation, and that if they determine that the results are not enough, they will respond again at a later date.
Qassam Muaddi is the Palestine Staff Writer for Mondoweiss
