Israel’s Pre-Emptive Strike On Hezbollah

Having learned that Hezbollah was planning to launch a massive strike against Israel’s central regions, with Tel Aviv its main target, using 6,000 missiles, the IDF instead launched a pre-emptive strike of its own during the pre-dawn hours of August 25. Jihad Watch reported on this briefly earlier today here, and more on this successful Israeli effort to prevent such a massive attack can be found here: “Former IDF intel chief casts doubts on Hezbollah’s attack plan,” Maariv Online, August 25, 2024:

Former head of Military Intelligence Directorate Tamir Hayman voiced his opinion on Sunday on Israel’s preemptive strike in Lebanon. “If indeed Hezbollah planned to fire 6,000 aerial threats, including to the center, as some reports indicate – then Beirut would be going up in flames right now,” Hayman said.

“There is no way that this was the plan and that this is how the Israeli response looks to such a step, which would mean starting an all-out war,” he continued.

“It’s good that the IDF destroyed thousands of weapons in the countermeasure operation early in the morning, but I recommend waiting with conclusions until the end of the event.”

Hayman is wondering why, if the threat was as large as the IDF’s chief Daniel Hagari claims, the response was not even more lethal, with “Beirut going up in flames.” But he recognizes that Israel has inflicted a colossal blow on Hezbollah by destroying “thousands” of its missiles; how many is still not known, but it is known that at the start of the Gaza War, Hezbollah had about 150,000 missiles and rockets, supplied by Iran, in its arsenal. It would take weeks of daily bombing to destroy such an enormous arsenal of weapons. But a good start was made before dawn on August 25.

The Israelis did not want to have “Beirut go up in flames” if that could be avoided by launching devastating airstrikes on Hezbollah’s supply of weapons instead. An attack on Beirut, with the enormous number of civilian casualties that such an attack would likely entail, would lead to a worldwide uproar, and ever louder calls at the UN and in the US for an arms embargo on Israel. No need to add fuel to the fire of that sinister campaign.

Hezbollah planned to launch missiles on Sunday at around 5:00 a.m. to Tel Aviv, and the Israeli pre-emptive strike foiled the plan. All the launchers were destroyed in the Israeli attack.

The IDF said that some 100 jets stopped thousands of missiles from being launched to the North. Hezbollah planned to launch about 6,000 missiles, dozens of them to central Israel. About a hundred planes attacked at the same time. In Israel, it is estimated that Hezbollah intended to launch missiles at the Glilot complex….

What a victory: untold thousands of missiles and drones on the ground were destroyed by that armada of 100 Israeli Air Force planes. In addition, all of the launchers that had been readied for use were also destroyed.

One puzzle: the IDF claimed it had destroyed all of the rocket launchers Hezbollah had readied for use before dawn on August 25. Yet Hezbollah was still able to launch about 300 rockets and drones toward Israel later that same morning. Were these other launchers, that had not been part of the number that Hezbollah had prepared for use on Sunday morning? One hopes the IDF can clear this up.

But even if those 300 rockets from Hezbollah did manage to be launched, they caused no significant damage. One Israeli sailor was killed. Two others were lightly wounded. That’s it.

The IDF has now made clear it will no longer wait to be attacked before responding. It’s a lesson meant not just for Hezbollah, but for its puppet-master, Iran. And Iran, despite the threats it uttered about a massive response to Israel’s “aggression” in assassinating Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran guesthouse, has done nothing to harm Israel directly, even though a month has passed since it first made those threats. Despite its bravado, Iran is not willing to risk an all-out war with the Jewish state, which could lead to a collapse of Iran’s already battered economy, if the IDF were to destroy the oil terminals on Kharg Isand through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports must travel, and the port of Bandar Abbas where so much of Iran’s other exports and imports are handled. And a collapse of Iran’s economy is likely to lead to mass protests by an already infuriated populace, which could cause the regime to crumble.

The pre-emptive attack by the IDF prevented mass casualties in Israel, while it destroyed many thousands of Hezbollah’s missiles and drones. Now Hezbollah’s leaders have been put on notice. As it says in the Talmud, “When someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.”