Multiple Hezbollah leaders fled Beirut after a joint statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz caused any IDF strikes in the capital to lose the element of surprise, an IDF source said on Monday. Shortly after the statement, in which Netanyahu and Katz announced intentions to strike terror targets in Beirut, IDF officials said that in order to strike in Beirut, a target bank needed to be prepared so as to hit Hezbollah's center of gravity.
The IDF intended to strike human targets, as well as operations rooms and command centers. However, after the statement, Hezbollah leaders rushed to leave the places where they had been present in Beirut. Many other residents left alongside them, some of them low-ranking Hezbollah operatives.
According to a source from the IDF, the statement canceled the military plan to surprise Hezbollah and deal a severe blow to its center of gravity in Beirut. The IDF may not know all the details of the framework of the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel proposed by the US. (Read More)
