After Hezbollah violated the ceasefire Saturday, Lebanese reports said the IDF carried out extensive strikes in the area of the Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, where an officer and two soldiers were seriously wounded in an attack by the terrorist organization.
Airstrikes overnight in the area of the Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon
According to reports in Lebanon, the Israel Air Force carried out a wave of strikes in the area of the ridge, including in the villages of Roumin and Deir Siriane. There were also reports of extensive artillery fire at targets in those villages and other areas, as well as claims that ground activity had taken place.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced the soldiers’ injuries in a highly unusual official statement published during Shabbat. The statement, written in English, said: “Hezbollah violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by attacking our soldiers in the security zone protecting Israeli communities across the border. Hezbollah’s attack severely wounded three of our soldiers.” According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the IDF then responded by striking “the Hezbollah terrorist headquarters that ordered the attack.”
The soldiers, from the Combat Engineering Corps’ Yahalom unit, were wounded by the explosion of an explosive drone launched at around 2:30 a.m. in the area of the Ali Taher ridge. Shortly after the Prime Minister’s Office statement, the IDF issued a statement saying it had killed, in the retaliatory strikes, Ali Hassan, a battalion commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force.
From the attacks overnight on Lebanon
After Shabbat ended, the IDF officially announced that the officer and two soldiers had been hospitalized at Rambam Medical Center, with two of them listed in serious condition and the third in moderate condition.
According to the military’s statement on the incident in Lebanon, the IDF struck a central headquarters of the terrorist organization in Al-Ansar in southern Lebanon overnight, in response to an action it carried out against forces operating in the security zone in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. Alongside the commander, additional terrorists who had been working to advance terror plans against IDF forces in the security zone were also killed.
The statement said Hassan’s family also was inside the military headquarters at the time of the strike and, according to the claim, was hit in the attack. “It should be emphasized that they were not the target of the strike. The strike was directed specifically at Hassan, who was a lawful target for attack under international law. The terrorist used his family as human shields and hid with them inside the military headquarters. The IDF will not allow the Hezbollah terrorist organization to harm the citizens of the State of Israel or its forces, and will continue to act to remove threats.”
Two of the soldiers are listed in serious condition and one in moderate condition.