NEW YORK — By targeting Hezbollah’s leadership in a major Beirut airstrike on Friday, Israel is hoping to avoid launching a ground invasion in Lebanon, a senior Israeli official told reporters on Friday.
The strike targeting Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and other top officials in the terror group huddling at a main command center in Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb was aimed at breaking Hezbollah, the senior official explained during a briefing with reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address there earlier in the day.
The official claimed Israeli intelligence had uncovered an Iranian plan to encircle Israel and eliminate the Jewish state by 2040. However, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar jumped the gun by ordering the October 7 terror onslaught before other Iran proxies were ready.
Israel has been working to fend off this Iranian plot since October 7 but understood that Nasrallah was the “lynchpin” who could not be ignored.
Nasrallah has led Hezbollah for 32 years, and since October 7 has directed the terror group’s near daily cross-border attacks against Israel that have forced tens of thousands of civilians to evacuate border towns. READ MORE