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Israeli Fighter Jets Hit 1,600 Hezbollah Terror Targets in Lebanon in 24 Hours
Smoke billows over southern Lebanon, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjayoun, near the border with Israel, Sept. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Karamallah Daher
JNS.org — The Israeli Air Force struck over 1,600 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley over the past 24 hours as part of “Operation Northern Arrows,” according to the Israeli military.
Among the targets hit was a terror cell that launched 20 rockets in three barrages at the Afula and HaAmakim areas in northern Israel overnight Monday. The launchers used in those attacks were also destroyed.
Also overnight, Israel Defense Forces artillery and tanks struck additional Hezbollah targets in the area of Ayta ash Shab and Ramyeh in Southern Lebanon.
The overnight strikes came after Monday’s massive Israeli aerial offensive, during which fighter jets hit rocket launchers, command posts and structures, including civilian residences, used by Hezbollah to store munitions.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 558 people were killed and 1,835 were wounded in the Israeli attacks. The ministry’s figures did not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants.
Thousands of Lebanese have evacuated from the south as Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah terror targets intensifies after the IDF instructed civilians to move away from homes where Hezbollah has stored munitions.
In addition to Southern Lebanon, the IAF continued striking Hezbollah terror targets in the Bekaa Valley deep inside Lebanese territory on Tuesday morning.
Hezbollah continued to launch rocket attacks on Tuesday, firing more than 100 rockets at northern Israel and causing multiple injuries, including a 25-year-old man moderately wounded by shrapnel during a barrage towards the Mount Carmel area.
Sirens sounded in the northern Israeli coastal city of Nahariya and surrounding areas. Two rockets from Lebanon fell into the sea, according to the IDF. There were no injuries or damage.
Rocket alerts were also heard in communities in the Galilee region and near the large port city of Haifa. Rocket fire was reported in Afula and Nazareth.
A 58-year-old woman was lightly injured by shrapnel in the Druze village of Yarka in the Western Galilee, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service. She was transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya along with a 61-year-old man suffering from anxiety. They were both sitting in a car. MDA teams were also treating several people injured on their way to shelters and additional anxiety cases.
Also, a supermarket was reportedly damaged by shrapnel in the Arab town of Tamra in the Lower Galilee and several fires were reported following a heavy barrage in the area of Kiryat Shmona, including blazes at municipal warehouses. The evacuated border town has been continuously targeted over the past year.
Sirens were also activated in Tel Hai, Kfar Giladi, Metula, and other towns in the region.
Since Friday, Hezbollah has launched hundreds of rockets at Israel, forcing over a million people to run to bomb shelters. On Monday, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy fired deeper into Israeli territory than it had since joining the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, including at Haifa and northern Samaria.
Hezbollah has fired more than 8,800 rockets, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) toward Israel since Oct. 8. The strikes have forced over 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from northern communities, severely impacting daily life in the region.
Jerusalem has ramped up its rhetoric and escalated attacks on Hezbollah since recently adding the return of residents to the north as an official war goal.
The government on Monday evening approved the declaration of a “special emergency situation” countrywide, granting authorities more powers to ensure the safety of the civilian population. The declaration will expire after 48 hours unless extended by Cabinet ministers.
There were no specific changes to the Home Front Command instructions for areas of Israel outside of the northern region. However, there were changes to some border area communities, with no in-person educational activities in the Megido area, Yokneam Illit, Daliyat al-Karmel and Isfiya. The IDF Home Front Command had already cancelled school for communities from Haifa northwards.
Meanwhile, foreign airlines continue to suspend flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport. Wizz Air, British Airways, and Azerbaijan Airlines canceled flights on Tuesday. The Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, announced on Monday that it was extending its suspension of flights to Ben Gurion Airport until Oct. 14.
On Monday night, the IDF provided video and photographic documentation of how Hezbollah stores munitions inside the homes of civilians in Southern Lebanon, including images of a long-range missile on a hydraulic system in the attic of a home in the village of Houmine al-Tahta.
“It is ready to launch from an opening in the roof. Under the attic, on the first floor, a Lebanese family lives, serving as a human shield,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference.
“This is an immediate and real threat to Israeli civilians, and we have an obligation to remove it,” he added.
Also, the IDF released video footage of an airstrike against a Lebanese home where Hezbollah had stored munitions. The video shows a rocket flying out of the building after the strike and hitting an adjacent house.
The post Israeli Fighter Jets Hit 1,600 Hezbollah Terror Targets in Lebanon in 24 Hours first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Israel’s military said it would issue 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students following a Supreme Court ruling mandating their conscription and amid growing pressure from reservists stretched by extended deployments.
The Supreme Court ruling last year overturned a decades-old exemption for ultra-Orthodox students, a policy established when the community comprised a far smaller segment of the population than the 13 percent it represents today.
Military service is compulsory for most Israeli Jews from the age of 18, lasting 24-32 months, with additional reserve duty in subsequent years. Members of Israel’s 21 percent Arab population are mostly exempt, though some do serve.
A statement by the military spokesperson confirmed the orders on Sunday just as local media reported legislative efforts by two ultra-Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to craft a compromise.
The exemption issue has grown more contentious as Israel’s armed forces in recent years have faced strains from simultaneous engagements with Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, and Iran.
Ultra-Orthodox leaders in Netanyahu’s brittle coalition have voiced concerns that integrating seminary students into military units alongside secular Israelis, including women, could jeopardize their religious identity.
The military statement promised to ensure conditions that respect the ultra-Orthodox way of life and to develop additional programs to support their integration into the military. It said the notices would go out this month.
The post Israel to Issue 54,000 Call-Up Notices to Ultra-Orthodox Students first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a “grave mistake” that he said would benefit the terrorist group Hamas.
Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel’s military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his “next steps” but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition.
Smotrich’s comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.
“… the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,” Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as “logistical support for the enemy during wartime”.
The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.
Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.
PRESSURE
Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.
Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.
The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.
The post Influential Far-Right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu Over Gaza War Policy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the Australian Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Aug. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy
Australian police have charged a man in connection with an alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue with worshippers in the building, the latest in a series of incidents targeting the nation’s Jewish community.
There were no injuries to the 20 people inside the East Melbourne Synagogue, who fled from the fire on Friday night. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in the capital of Victoria state.
Australia has experienced several antisemitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023.
Counter-terrorism detectives late on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old resident of Sydney, capital of neighboring New South Wales, charging him with offenses including criminal damage by fire, police said.
“The man allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the front door of the building and set it on fire before fleeing the scene,” police said in a statement.
The suspect, whom the authorities declined to identify, was remanded in custody after his case was heard at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday and no application was made for bail, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.
Authorities are investigating whether the synagogue fire was linked to a disturbance on Friday night at an Israeli restaurant in Melbourne, in which one person was arrested for hindering police.
The restaurant was extensively damaged, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for Australia’s Jews.
It said the fire at the synagogue, one of Melbourne’s oldest, was set as those inside sat down to Sabbath dinner.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went on X to “condemn outright the vile arson attack targeting Jews in Melbourne’s historic and oldest synagogue on the Sabbath, and on an Israeli restaurant where people had come to enjoy a meal together”.
“This is not the first such attack in Australia in recent months. But it must be the last,” Herzog said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incidents as “severe hate crimes” that he viewed “with utmost gravity.” “The State of Israel will continue to stand alongside the Australian Jewish community,” Netanyahu said on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Saturday described the alleged arson, which comes seven months after another synagogue in Melbourne was targeted by arsonists, as shocking and said those responsible should face the law’s full force.
“My Government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese posted on X.
Homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in Australia have been targeted by antisemitic vandalism and arson. The incidents included a fake plan by organized crime to attack a Sydney synagogue using a caravan of explosives in order to divert police resources, police said in March.
The post Australia Police Charge Man Over Alleged Arson on Melbourne Synagogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.