Yesterday, the IDF officially announced the elimination of two terrorists in Syria and Lebanon who held a high position in the hierarchy of HAMAS and Hezbollah, respectively.
The first was responsible for firing rockets into Israel from Syria. He was eliminated in a successful attack carried out by our air force in the town of Beit Jan in southern Syria.
Maybe, just as a response to this successful elimination, last night HAMAS launched (probably wasting one of the few remaining rockets in its stockpile) a rocket attack in the direction of Tel Aviv and its neighborhoods, which, by the grace of G-d, ended without casualties. Some rockets were shot down, others fell into the sea.
Yesterday’s elimination of a high-ranking HAMAS terrorist is part of our Army’s increased activities against enemy targets in Syria in recent months. Attacks by our air force against enemy targets in Syria have intensified since the horrific Shoah on Simchat Torah. Since that time the Israeli army has been attacking and destroying the arms supplies, facilities and infrastructure of terrorists, and it has not hesitated to eliminate Hezbollah fighters who find themselves under attack, which is something it avoided in the past.
According to evaluations in Israel, the Assad regime is extremely afraid of a direct confrontation with the IDF, realizing that the Syrian army, amid the collapse of the state during the civil war, has lost its strength and is unable to confront the regular army of Israel.
Hezbollah for its part, according to Israeli analysts, will also continue to refrain from declaring war and will be satisfied with a restrained response, which is essentially what we saw the day before. This situation is likely to continue in the coming days.
The second liquidation was even more substantial and significant. Yesterday, in Lebanon, the newly appointed commander of the Radwan Brigade was eliminated. We are talking about the most powerful terrorist group, Hezbollah, responsible for all terrorist activity against Israel in the north in recent months, as well as its army that has been preparing all the last few years to make, G-d forbid, a terrorist infiltration into Israel from the northern border.
This villain, who was eliminated by the IDF yesterday, was the ultimate terrorist who had to be eliminated. He was directly responsible for the first serious attack on Israel by Hezbollah terrorists carried out after the retreat (Ehud Barak’s escape) of the Israeli army from South Lebanon more than twenty years ago. That attack was carried out against our forces stationed on Mount Dov, the Hermon mountain spur on the border with Lebanon, on October 7, 2000. Three of our engineers, Adi Avitan, Beni Abraham and Omar Suayed, were killed. Hezbollah terrorists had not only killed them, but also stolen their bodies, only to return them later, as part of a swap deal for the release of terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails.
The terrorist who was eliminated yesterday was also directly responsible for the assassinations of the Israelis that started the Second Lebanon War in 2006: Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, may the Almighty avenge their blood. These fighters were also killed, and their bodies were kidnapped and returned later — in exchange for the release of terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Yesterday’s elimination of this evil man was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Hezbollah. The leaders of this group clearly did not expect such a development, believing that Israel would “stay quiet”, waiting for Hezbollah’s reaction to the liquidation last week in Beirut of one of the bosses of HAMAS, may the Almighty erase the memory of the name of the wicked one. However, it didn’t happen...
It’s clear that our forces in the north now have their combat readiness turned up to a high level.