In parallel to its operations in Iran along with the U.S., the Israel Defense Forces is “forcefully attacking” Hezbollah in Lebanon with the aim of disarming the terrorist group, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Thursday.
“I have ordered IDF forces to advance and deepen the control line on the border while taking up positions in key locations in Southern Lebanon,” Zamir said in a filmed statement, his first since the launch of operations “Roaring Lion” and “Epic Fury” in Iran by Israel and the U.S.
The operations in Iran “created air supremacy and suppressed the ballistic missile array,” Zamir said. “Now we are moving on to the next phase of the operation, in which we will intensify damage to the regime’s foundations and military capabilities.”
The IDF has “surprise moves” in place, which Zamir said he would not expand on, he added.
In Iran, Israel Air Force pilots have carried out about 2,500 strikes, dropping more than 6,000 ordinances, thus “paving the path to Tehran,” Zamir said. “We have taken out 80% of the aerial defense systems and achieved near total air supremacy in Iran’s airspace,” he added.
This and “quality intelligence” is allowing Israel to target Iran’s ballistic arsenal, Zamir said, adding that “we have neutralized and destroyed upward of 60% of the ballistic missile launchers, a very significant achievement that is reducing damage to the home front and saving many lives. The effort is ongoing.”
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel two days after the Feb. 28 launch of the operation against its sponsor, the Iranian regime. Hezbollah’s actions violated the terms of a ceasefire reached between Israel and Beirut in November 2024.
Zamir called the violation “a strategic error that goes against the interests of the citizens of Lebanon.”
Hezbollah is “paying a heavy price” for this,” he said, adding, “There will be no more equations,” military jargon that signifies tolerance of some offensive actions by the enemy. “We will act relentless to remove the threat and will not abandon the goal until Hezbollah is disarmed.”
The IDF is attacking “on the border with Lebanon and deep in its territory,” Zamir said, noting that on Wednesday night, Israel killed Zaid Ali Jumaa, known also as Fid’aai, whose role was to coordinate the terror group’s ballistic arsenal.
Jumaa was “responsible for the death of many Israelis,” Zamir said, and personally commanded a January 2015 missile attack that killed Maj. Yochai (Jocha) Klangel and Sgt. Maj. Dor Chaim Nini on Mount Dov, and wounded seven others.
Reviewing the operation in Iran, Zamir said thousands of troops had planned it “in close cooperation with our ally, the United States.” In the operation’s opening move, “within only 40 seconds, about 40 seniors from Iran’s terror regime were eliminated,” including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, “whose goal was to destroy the State of Israel, and he had a detailed plan for it.”
Zamir spoke about the U.S.-Israeli cooperation.
“I am in constant contact with my America counterparts,” including Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper, Zamir said. “We fight based on joint interest and values, shoulder to shoulder. They are true friends.”
Zamir called the cooperation “historic” and said it is “stripping, through synchronized action, the Iranian regime of its military capabilities and bringing it into unprecedented strategic isolation and a weakness.”
The IDF chief quoted Cooper’s remarks on Israel on Tuesday, in which the American said that “the two most powerful air forces in the world, the U.S. and Israel, are dominating the skies over the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”
Zamir expressed his “deepest appreciation for the courageous and determined action of the U.S. military. In the name of the IDF, I share the grief of the families of the American heroes who fell in battle,” Zamir said, referencing the six servicemen killed earlier this week in an Iranian strike on a U.S. air base in Kuwait. He also extended condolences to the families of the 10 people killed in Israel by direct missile strikes and praised the home front’s resilience and discipline throughout the campaign.
Iran, Zamir said, “is a danger to regional and world stability, and, as we have seen in recent days, it is a significant threat to Israel, other regional countries and the entire Free World. The more we would have waited with the operation, the more Iran would have entered the immunity zone, and threat would have risen.”
