The IDF struck Hezbollah terror infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Thursday, including weapons storage facilities, loaded and ready-to-fire launchers, and operations facilities.
Hezbollah terrorists used the infrastructure sites that were struck to advance terror attacks against IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and against the State of Israel, according to an IDF statement.
The IDF also targeted a number of rocket launchers directed toward areas in which IDF soldiers are operating and toward Israeli territory.
According to a Reuters report citing Lebanon's Health Ministry, twelve people, including two children, were killed in the strikes on southern Lebanon.
Israel's attacks on Wednesday included three drone strikes targeting vehicles well beyond the main theater of conflict in the south, on the coastal highway some 20 km (12 miles) south of Beirut, security sources in Lebanon told Reuters.
Israel's strikes counter an increase in Hezbollah suicide drone attacks and rocket attacks on both IDF troops and Israeli civilian areas over the past month.
Hezbollah calls for an end to negotiations between Israel and Lebanon
On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem announced that the terrorist group would not surrender and called for an end to the direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, in a written message to Hezbollah terrorists.
Qassem asserted the terror group’s commitment to remaining on the battlefield, saying Lebanon would not return to the state of affairs that existed before March 2.
Claiming that Israel and the US seek to annex Lebanon as part of “Greater Israel,” Qassem added that “no matter how great the sacrifices, they are less than the cost of surrender.”
Reuters and Danya Saperstein contributed to this report.