The Israel Defense Forces carried out a series of strikes on several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday evening that it said were used by Hezbollah to manufacture drones, and in a separate instance, also issued evacuation warnings for two areas in a southern Lebanon town.
The strikes in Beirut hit several underground drone manufacturing facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial forces, also know as Unit 127, according to the military.
Ahead of the strikes, which began shortly after 10 p.m., the IDF said it had “identified that Hezbollah’s aerial unit is working to produce many thousands of UAVs, under the guidance and funding of Iranian terror officials.”
This was happening, the military said, “despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon” as laid out in a November ceasefire agreement that halted more than a year of fighting along Israel’s northern border.
“This activity is a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The Hezbollah terror organization creates challenges for the Lebanese state and thus impairs the implementation of the understandings,” the IDF asserted.
In a later statement, the IDF said Hezbollah’s aerial forces launched over 1,000 explosive and surveillance drones at Israel during the war last year, and was currently working, despite the ceasefire deal, to strengthen its capabilities.
“Over the years, Iran has funded and directed terrorist attacks through this project, in coordination with Hezbollah. Hezbollah terrorists travel to Iran for training in production systems, which supports the group’s ability to independently manufacture UAVs inside Lebanon,” the military continued.
“The IDF has identified that Hezbollah terrorists have been continuing this activity even since the understandings came into effect, and the IDF is determined to take action against terrorists trained in Iran for terrorist attacks.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed ahead of the strikes that, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he had “instructed the IDF this evening to strike and destroy buildings used by the terrorist organization Hezbollah to manufacture and store drones in the heart of the Dahiyeh district of Beirut.”
