First Time Since 2000: IDF Moves Artillery Batteries into South Lebanon

The IDF has advanced several artillery batteries into Southern Lebanon in recent days, the military stated, thus improving its firepower, possibly ahead of a broadening of the IDF’s maneuvers in the area.

The IDF stated on Sunday that the 282nd artillery brigade has been fighting on the northern border in recent months, attacking targets to assist the maneuvering forces with artillery fire.

Following the IDF’s operations against new targets, forces from the 411th Battalion crossed the border and are firing at Hezbollah targets from within Lebanese territory “to increase the firing range, enable full artillery support for the maneuvering forces, and launch significant fire in the combat zone,” it stated.

IDF artillery batteries operating in the north in recent months have engaged thousands of targets, including weapons depots, Hezbollah headquarters, operational apartments used by terrorists, and rocket launcher complexes.

The brigade’s forces have also eliminated hundreds of terrorists and destroyed numerous terrorist infrastructures in assistance to all brigades operating in Lebanon.

This deployment of artillery batteries in Lebanon is a historical moment as this is the first time since the IDF’s withdrawal from the security zone in 2000 that Israeli artillery is present on Lebanese soil.

The extension of the artillery’s firing range further into Lebanon may indicate that the IDF is broadening its operations deeper into the country, beyond the initial strip of land adjacent to Israel’s northern border.

While discussions of a ceasefire in the north continue, the IDF is proceeding with its counterterrorism operations in Lebanon while the Israeli Airforce is continuing with its wave of attacks on military headquarters and other Hezbollah terrorist infrastructures in the Dahieh area of ​​Beirut, a key Hezbollah stronghold where terrorist infrastructure is systematically embedded within the civilian population.

On Sunday, the IAF eliminated the chief propagandist and spokesperson of Hezbollah Mohammed Afif, a senior Hezbollah military operative who was directly involved in advancing and executing Hezbollah’s terrorist activities against Israel.

“Messages broadcasted by Afif to the Lebanese media glorified and incited terrorist activities against Israel, and he was responsible for numerous psychological terror operations against the Israeli public,” the IDF stated.

Afif’s “impact on the terrorist organization proves that he was directly involved in Hezbollah’s terrorist activity against the State of Israel,” it added.

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