IDF cancels events in north amid concern over potential Hezbollah revenge attacks

Three said killed in villages across southern Lebanon as military targets Hezbollah infrastructure; Netanyahu warns no terrorist is safe after Radwan force chief killed in Beirut

The Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday that it was canceling several civilian events in northern Israel after assessing that there was a chance Hezbollah could fire rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of the terror group’s Radwan Force commander in Beirut the previous day.

The military also said that Israeli troops stationed in southern Lebanon came under attack by the Iran-backed terror group on Thursday, and Lebanese media reported several killed in Israeli strikes as both sides kept up an exchange of fire despite an ostensible ceasefire intended to keep the conflict on Israel’s northern border at bay.

Of the rockets and drones fired at forces in southern Lebanon, some were shot down while others exploded near the troops, the army said.

It said no injuries were caused by any of the attacks, which Hezbollah has kept up with on a near-daily basis despite the ceasefire agreement signed between Israel and Lebanon at the behest of Washington last month.

The ceasefire in Lebanon has largely fallen by the wayside, as Israel, too, has carried out frequent airstrikes in southern Lebanon, and, on Wednesday, killed the commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, Ahmed Ghaleb Balout, in the first strike on Beirut in almost a month.

Two other senior Hezbollah commanders were also killed in strikes on Wednesday, the IDF said, identifying them as Muhammad Ali Bazi, chief of intelligence in Hezbollah’s Nasr regional division, and Hussein Hassan Romani, head of aerial defense in the terror group.

“These commanders worked to advance and carry out terror attack plans against IDF troops and Israeli citizens,” the military said.

New wave of strikes rocks southern Lebanon

Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported that three people were killed in Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon on Thursday morning.

One person was killed in a strike targeting a car near Maifadoun, and two others were killed in a strike targeting a pickup truck near Habboush, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Hours later, the IDF issued an evacuation warning for the villages of Deir ez-Zahrani, Bfaroueh and Habboush, all in southern Lebanon, ahead of a fresh round of airstrikes that it said were targeting Hezbollah infrastructure.

It warned residents of the three villages to evacuate at least a kilometer (.621 miles) away to ensure that they would not be harmed in the strikes.

The military also confirmed on Thursday that it had carried out strikes in the southern city of Nabatieh, saying it hit Hezbollah’s weapon manufacturing infrastructure and other buildings used by the terror group.

Separately, the IDF said that it struck some 20 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon overnight, including weapon depots, drone launch sites, and a cell of operatives caught transporting weapons in a truck.

And after another incident of rocket fire at troops overnight, the IDF said the Hezbollah operative responsible for it had been killed while trying to hide the rocket launcher in a building.

The military published footage showing the rocket fire and the operative then moving the launcher into a “civilian building” in the town of Jouaiyya. The Israeli Air Force then bombed the building, killing the rocket-launching operative.

The IDF said it also struck another launcher that had been used to fire at troops.

Ground Forces try to counter Hezbollah drone threat

In an effort to curb the constant attacks on troops deployed to southern Lebanon, the chief of the Ground Forces, Maj. Gen. Nadav Lotan, has appointed a senior officer to be responsible for finding solutions for the drone threat troops are facing.

The officer, a brigadier general and a pilot, heads the Ground Forces’ Strike Division, which is normally tasked with developing doctrine for combined air, intelligence and ground operations.

Several officers are working under the general to find solutions for first-person view (FPV) drones, especially those guided by fiber-optic cables, which are immune to electronic jamming and difficult to detect.

To counter the fiber-optic FPV drones, the IDF has deployed passive physical defenses in southern Lebanon, such as netting above troops, vehicles and outposts. According to the military, these measures have proven effective when troops “maintain operational discipline.”

The IDF has also deployed mobile radars to southern Lebanon, which are adapted to identify drones flying at different ranges and alert forces, who can then attempt to shoot them down.

The military is examining and implementing several methods of shooting down the drones by ground troops, including shotguns at short ranges, special ammunition that disperses in the air, and automated turrets.

The Ground Forces is also experimenting with other technological solutions for the drones, and cooperating with international partners as part of the effort, according to the military.

‘No terrorist has immunity’

After confirming Balout’s death, the IDF announced on Thursday afternoon that due to the possibility of retaliatory rocket fire, it had decided to cancel several civilian events on the northern border that had been exempt from the Home Front Command’s wartime guidelines.

The current guidelines in communities close to the Lebanon border limit indoor gatherings to 600 attendees and outdoor gatherings to 200.

But following a fresh assessment, the military said “it was decided to cancel events that had been exempted from the Home Front Command’s defense policy in the confrontation line [northern border] area, due to the possibility of retaliatory fire by the Hezbollah terror organization toward the area.”

It called on the public to “remain alert and vigilant.”

Even before the IDF commented on the matter, the Nahariya Municipality had already announced the cancellation of a planned night market on Thursday evening and a march on Friday marking Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) due to the threat of Hezbollah rocket fire over the killing of Balout.

The IDF has said that Balout had, among other roles, led the push to implement Hezbollah’s “Conquer the Galilee” plan, referring to the terror group’s plans to invade Israel, which did not materialize.

The Radwan force chief was targeted in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, in the first strike Israel had conducted in the Lebanese capital in almost a month, with the last having been on April 8 — after US President Donald Trump asked Israel to stop targeting Beirut.

Acknowledging that Israel had, at least temporarily, directed its operations in Lebanon away from the capital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Balout had believed he would be safe, sequestered away in Beirut.

“This is the same senior terrorist who led the plan to conquer the north,” he said in a video statement. “He believed he could continue directing attacks against our forces and our communities from his hidden terrorist headquarters in Beirut.”

“He apparently read in the press that he had immunity in Beirut. So he read — and that will no longer happen,” Netanyahu continued.

Continuing his recent trend of tough-talking videos, the premier boasted that in the past month, Israel has killed more than 200 Hezbollah operatives.

“No terrorist has immunity,” Netanyahu warned. “Anyone who threatens Israel puts his own life at risk.”