IAF hits over 60 targets in Lebanon
The IAF hit over sixty targets in Lebanon last night, killing thirteen people and wounding another fifty-three. Among the targets hit were radar stations near the Tripoli port that were reportedly being used by Hezbullah to track Israeli aircraft. But the Air Force warns that Hezbullah still has lots of weapons at its disposal, and Hezbullah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah agrees:Hezbollah still has at its disposal a significant arsenal "of very many rockets of all kinds," Israel Air Force Commander Major General Elyezer Shkedy told reporters at a news briefing on Sunday.The head of IDF intelligence talked about Hezbullah's rocket arsenal:
Shkedy said that thus far the IDF has struck part of Hezbollah's array of rockets and that the goal of the military campaign against Lebanon is to "deal seriously with the infrastructure that has been built over the course of years."
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Nasrallah on Sunday said the IDF offensive on Lebanon had not depleted its large stockpile of rockets, and warned that the Islamic group could strike almost anywhere in Israel.
"We will continue. We still have a lot more and we are just at the beginning," Nasrallah said in a taped televised address on Al-Manar. "We promise them surprises in (any) confrontation."
The IDF's chief intelligence officer, Brigadier General Yuval Helmish, said that since the end of Operation Grapes of Wrath - the IDF's offensive in south Lebanon in April 1996 - Hezbollah has amassed over 10,000 rockets, some of which have a range of over 70 kilometers, and has dispersed the missiles in towns and villages throughout south Lebanon.But Ehud
The Jerusalem Post reports that roads were shut down in Lebanon to clear debris and casualties, and that the Beirut Airport was hit yet again.
The road to Syria's northwest was temporarily closed to traffic as rescuers evacuated casualties and cleared the rubble.I wonder how much jet fuel Lebanon will need when this is over!
Warplanes also struck the Beirut international airport premises early Monday, targeting a fuel storage tank that sent an orange flame billowing high into the night sky.
The facility has been closed since Thursday after Israeli missiles punched holes in its runways and set ablaze fuel storage tanks.
This morning, the IAF attacked the port of Beirut with missiles, bombing a gas tank in a northern neighborhood and shelling the southern suburbs.
According to Lebanese media reports, a large fire broke out in the port, and two people were killed when missiles hit a parking area for trucks next to the harbor.
There has been some confusion in the media as to why Israel has been attacking in the northernmost regions of Lebanon - from Tripoli and beyond. I alluded to it above when I said that radar stations being used by Hezbullah were being targeted, but this tidbit in a HaAretz article makes it much clearer what is going on:
The IDF said it had targeted radar stations there, because they had been used by Hezbollah to hit a ship on Friday. It all but accused the Lebanese military of lending its support to Hezbollah.In other words, although Israel does not target the Lebanese army (this is mentioned in nearly every article I saw this morning), it will not hesitate to hit Lebanese army positions that are being used to support Hezbullah (I apologize for all the different spellings of Hezbullah. I spell it Hezbullah, but every publication here spells it differently and a lot of times when I cut and paste, I don't bother to correct all the spellings). If the Lebanese army won't be part of the solution, they should at least not be part of the problem.
"The attacks ... are against radar stations used, among other things, in the attack on the Israeli missile boat, by Hezbollah in cooperation with the Lebanese military," the Israeli army spokesman told The Associated Press.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:45 AM
2 Comments:
I have to disagree with you on Barak's withdrawal from Lebanon and Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza.
By withdrawing unilaterally from Gaza and Southern Lebanon they put the onus onto their enemies, who they knew could not restrain themselves, thereby freeing Israel of the shackles that had been imposed on her by the "world community", and opening up more strategic options than what they currently had.
You have got to be kidding.
Hezbullah has over 12,000 Katyushas in Southern Lebanon today, which they are raining down on our cities in the north. That would not have been possible had Israel been sitting in southern Lebanon.
The day we withdrew from Gaza, the 'frontline' in the south moved up. Instead of missiles being shot at Jewish revenants in Gaza, they were now being shot constantly at Sderot and Ashkelon. More ammunition was brought into Gaza in the last eleven months than in the previous thirty-eight years.
Most of the country agrees now that the unilateral surrender of Gaza was a mistake (I am going to post poll data on that in a little bit). Haven't seen any polls on Lebanon yet, but I trust that right now, the results would be similar. The only question is whether the lesson has been sufficiently internalized that it won't be forgotten within a week after the shooting 'stops.'
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