Israeli army claims it hit 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon within 1 hour

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army on Monday evening claimed that some 100 of its fighter jets struck over 120 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon within an hour.

In a statement, the army said it struck Hezbollah's rocket systems and the group's intelligence headquarters in southern Lebanon.

It added that the strikes aimed at damaging Hezbollah's capabilities and to back the Israeli forces in its operations in southern Lebanon.

The Hezbollah group is yet to comment on the Israeli army's statement.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing 1,251, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar