Dozens of rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, causing extensive damage and lightly wounding two people, according to Israeli reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a limited security consultation Wednesday evening to discuss Israel's response.
Israeli officials told Israel Hayom that the Hezbollah had decided to intensify its attacks both to shift international focus away from Iran and to enter future negotiations with Israel from a stronger position. According to the officials, Hezbollah also hopes to remove enforcement mechanisms included in the previous ceasefire arrangement.
Israel is threatening a significant escalation in response. Officials warned that Israel could seize territory in southern Lebanon and substantially expand the Israel Defense Forces' presence in the buffer zone along the border.
Hezbollah earlier announced what it described as a "new operation" called "The Eaten Straw." The name refers to Surah al-Fil in the Quran, which describes the fate of the army of Abraha the Abyssinian. According to the story, Abraha attempted to conquer Mecca in the 6th century with a Christian army that included elephants.
In the narrative, flocks of birds attack the army, leaving it like "eaten straw," meaning completely destroyed and scattered. The name appears to be an attempt by Hezbollah to frame its terrorist activities in Islamic religious imagery.
Meanwhile, reports from southern Lebanon said Israeli forces carried out strikes and artillery shelling on the villages of Zibqin, Kfara, al-Shaabiyah, Siddiqin, Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab.
The IDF also carried out strikes in Dahiyeh, the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.
