Hundreds of Hezbollah commandos from the elite Radwan Force crossed the Litani River in Southern Lebanon in an attempt to invade Israeli communities along the Lebanese border during the first week of “Operation Roaring Lion” in the beginning of March, it became known on Thursday.
The intended invasion, identified by the Israeli intelligence community, was blocked by an Israel Defense Forces offensive.
Israeli forces repelled the attack and eliminated the terrorists.
Channel 14 correspondent Yaki Adamker reported that the raiding attempt was the reason that the war in Lebanon restarted.
Since the beginning of the war, IDF troops have taken control of a stretch of territory that runs along the border into Southern Lebanon.
Israel Hayom on Friday cited military officials commenting on the incident.
Referring to criticism leveled at the IDF Northern Command’s aggressive response to a barrage of rockets fired into Israel following the targeted killing on Feb. 28 of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a military official who spoke under conditions of anonymity said, “They apparently don’t understand what we saw during the first week of March.
“Hundreds of Radwan Force operatives crossed the Litani River. Why did they come? If there had been even a single raid on a single community, all of us would have had to go home [be dismissed]. What were we supposed to do if not meet them on their own territory and kill them?”
On Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists and Gazan civilians invaded Israel’s northwestern Negev, slaughtered some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 more to the Strip. The massacre triggered Israel’s longest-ever war, seeing the IDF fight on multiple fronts against Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance.
