Netanyahu warns of further action after “preemptive” airstrikes in Lebanon

JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah and Iran that Sunday morning’s intense airstrikes in Lebanon are “not the end of the story.”
Addressing the cabinet, Netanyahu stated that the strikes “destroyed thousands of short-range rockets intended to attack our citizens and forces in the Galilee.”
He also claimed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted all drones launched by Hezbollah targeting a strategic area near Tel Aviv, including the Mossad headquarters, according to state-owned Kan TV.
Before dawn, approximately 100 Israeli warplanes bombed “hundreds of armed launchers and thousands of launcher barrels, mostly aimed at northern Israel,” IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.
Hagari described the operation as a “preemptive attack” intended to neutralize a broader threat. He noted that most rockets and drones launched by Hezbollah were intercepted.
Hezbollah took responsibility for targeting several military sites in northern Israel with 320 rockets, calling it “the first phase” of its retaliation for the assassination of senior official Fouad Shokor in Beirut last month. The group also confirmed drone launches into central Israel, claiming to have caused infrastructure damage.
The IDF denied that any military base was damaged, and no casualties were reported on the Israeli side, except for one woman who sustained light injuries from shrapnel. ■