Truck carrying a loaded rocket launcher in southern Lebanon village of Seddiqine
(Video: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The IDF's Operation Northern Arrows against Hezbollah aims to be as brief as possible, but an extended campaign remains a possibility, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Tuesday evening. “We still have work to do,” he said, emphasizing that the goal is to return northern residents safely to their homes.
Hagari addressed the targeted killing of Hezbollah’s head of missile operations Ibrahim Qubaisi in a precision airstrike in Beirut’s Dahieh district earlier Tuesday. Qubaisi was reportedly involved in directing the morning’s rocket fire at Haifa. The IDF released footage of the strike, along with a video showing a truck carrying rockets hidden in a residential building in the village of Seddiqine in southern Lebanon.
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Truck carrying a loaded rocket launcher in southern Lebanon village of Seddiqine
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"Throughout the day, we continued to strike in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley. Hezbollah has turned these areas into a combat zone," Hagari said, presenting footage of attacks on three houses where weapons were stored.
"It is clear that missiles are exploding from the houses, missiles that are launched in every direction. Here, for example, you see a building where a truck carrying a medium-range rocket launcher was hidden."
Strike on a building followed by secondary explosions
Hagari accused Hezbollah of concealing numerous such vehicles inside homes where Lebanese families live, using them to transport weapons. "With precise intelligence, we struck the building and destroyed the launcher and rockets. We will continue to release and distribute such videos in various languages to the entire world to show what Hezbollah has been doing over the past 20 years in a vast project where they have turned thousands of civilian homes in southern Lebanon, and not only in southern Lebanon, into terror bases, turning southern Lebanon into a combat zone. They are using the civilian population as human shields, and by doing so endangering them and continuing to do so."
Regarding the Beirut strike that killed Qubaisi, Hagari said, “We eliminated Ibrahim Mohammad Qubaisi, the head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit. Israeli Air Force fighter jets accurately struck a level in a building where he was with other commanders from Hezbollah’s missile unit. At least two of them were eliminated, and we are still assessing the results of the strike. Qubaisi was a key figure in activating missiles, predominantly precision-guided missiles. He was responsible for a series of attacks on Israeli territory. In recent days, he was responsible for the rocket fire toward Haifa, including this morning."
Hagari refrained from providing specific details about Hezbollah's degraded capabilities to avoid compromising intelligence. “We are focusing on their strategic capabilities, which pose the greatest risk to the Israeli home front," he said.
Assassination of Ibrahim Qubaisi, commander of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket division
(Video: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The IDF spokesperson reported that around 300 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Tuesday, injuring six people, mostly lightly. He commended northern residents for following Home Front Command guidelines, which he said saved lives and thwarted Hezbollah’s objectives.
Hagari also referenced Monday's strike targeting Ali Karaki, Hezbollah’s third-ranking leader, in Dahieh. Although Hezbollah claimed Karaki survived, Hagari said the IDF is still evaluating the results and refining future strikes.
As for the operation’s duration, Hagari said, “We aim for the campaign to be as short as possible, which is why we are striking with immense force. However, we must also be prepared for it to last longer. Our mission is to achieve the war’s objectives and ensure the safe return of northern residents to their homes. We must fulfill this task.”