Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli troops captured two Hezbollah fighters, members of the group’s elite Radwan Force, during operations in southern Lebanon over the weekend, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced on March 23.
In a statement, the IDF said that troops of the Givati Brigade spotted the Radwan fighters while they were planning to launch anti-tank guided missiles at the forces, as well as at Israeli territories.
A short while later, the pair surrendered to the troops, the military added, noting that the forces located weapons and other military equipment alongside the fighters and that the building they were in was destroyed overnight.
Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
The two fighters were taken to Israel and questioned by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504, which specializes in human intelligence.
Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Click to see full-size image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
According to the IDF, their interrogation revealed that the fighters arrived in southern Lebanon from the Beqaa Valley area at the start of the American-Israeli war with Iran.
“This case once again proves that the Lebanese army failed and did not prevent the movement of terrorists and weapons south of the Litani [River],” the military said.
Hezbollah resumed military operations right after the start of the war on Iran, ending a ceasefire brokered by the United States more than 15 months earlier and promoting the IDF to launch “targeted” ground operations in southern Lebanon.
The group stepped up attacks on northern Israel in recent days. In fact, just before the IDF announced the capture of the group’s fighters, a salvo or rockets hit the settlement of Kiryat Shmona, wounding at least four people, including one seriously, according to Hebrew media.
A day earlier, the IDF bombed a bridge on the Litani River in response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed a person in the settlement of Misgav Am.
Litani lies 20 to 30 kilometers away from the Blue Line, and Israel has repeatedly implied that it wants to occupy all territories up to the river since Hezbollah resumed military operations.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose son was seriously wounded by a recent Hezbollah attack, said on March 23 that Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani.
Smotrich told an Israeli radio program that the military campaign in Lebanon “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders.”
“I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” Smotrich said.
Smotrich’s remarks are yet another evidence that ongoing Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon are not “targeted,” but rather a part of a wider policy amid efforts to expand the territories of Israel. These remarks will likely strengthen Hezbollah’s position within Lebanon, even beyond its main support base.
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hezbollah took terrible losses from the israeli terrorist pager attack. it is back, perhaps better than ever. the two soldiers will surly be illegally tortured, but had good weapons. what price did the idf pay to capture them ?
they will be annally-penetrated in prison…heheheh