On Tuesday afternoon, Israel carried out a coordinated series of airstrikes targeting 20 Hezbollah sites in the group’s stronghold in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut, just before the security cabinet was about to meet to discuss a ceasefire proposal for Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also reported that for the first time in 24 years, its forces had reached a section of the Litani River, which runs relatively close to the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Following the issuance of a rare, large-scale evacuation notice for 20 buildings located in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, the IDF confirmed that within just two minutes, all 20 targets were hit.

The extensive and rapid airstrike operation involved eight fighter jets, as stated by the IDF.

The IDF revealed that seven of the structures targeted in the strikes were being used by Hezbollah to manage and store financial resources, including headquarters, vaults, and branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association, which is known to operate as a financial institution for Hezbollah, functioning as a pseudo-bank.

The remaining 13 sites hit in the strikes included a Hezbollah aerial operations center, an intelligence command post, weapon storage facilities, and other military infrastructure, according to the IDF.

The military later released video footage showing the airstrikes.

Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, affirmed his approval of “the continued IDF offensive operations on the northern front” during a meeting with top military commanders and defense officials to assess the situation.

The meeting that approved these military actions was attended by key defense figures, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk (Head of Operations), Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder (Head of Intelligence), Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano (Head of Strategy), Defense Ministry Director General Eyal Zamir, and Dror Shalom, the head of the ministry’s Political-Military Bureau.

Shortly before the major airstrike operation, Lebanese media outlets reported another Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, outside of Hezbollah’s stronghold. This strike, which occurred without prior evacuation warnings, was believed to be an assassination attempt rather than a typical strike on Hezbollah infrastructure.

Later in the day, Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, warned Lebanese civilians that multiple branches of the Al-Qard al-Hasan association would be targeted.

“Iranian funding and Hezbollah’s independent sources of income are deposited at the association’s branches, and it is used in practice to manage and store the terror assets of the organization,” Adraee explained.

He further stated that the airstrikes “will be another blow to the Iranian financing chain of Hezbollah, which uses an association under a civilian guise to finance assets for the storage of weapons, the establishment of launch sites, the payment of wages to its terrorists and the build-up of its criminal terrorist organization, on the backs of the people of Lebanon.”

Earlier in the morning, the IDF had conducted airstrikes on six Hezbollah-operated buildings in southern Beirut, including facilities used by Hezbollah’s coast-to-sea missile unit and as command centers. These strikes were also preceded by evacuation notices for the affected sites.

The military confirmed that a total of 26 airstrikes were carried out in Beirut on Tuesday, bringing the weekly total to 50.

According to the IDF, about 330 Hezbollah targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut have been hit since the beginning of the current conflict. By comparison, during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, roughly 140 sites were struck.

{Matzav.com Israel}