IDF Strikes Hezbollah Operatives Targeting Lebanon’s Largest Dam; 2,500 Killed Since Escalation

The IDF struck Hezbollah operatives who attempted to sabotage Lebanon’s Qaraoun Dam — the country’s largest — in the Litani River’s Qaraoun Lake, the military announced Thursday.

“Several Hezbollah operatives were observed earlier this week attempting to harm the activity of the Qaraoun Dam, which is considered national and strategic infrastructure of the Lebanese state, and they were attacked from the air,” said Lt. Col. Ella Waweya, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokeswoman.

Waweya addressed Lebanese civilians directly, warning that Hezbollah — which has “led to the ruin and destruction of your country” — attempted to damage infrastructure whose targeting “would cause severe damage to the economy of Lebanon and the state itself.” She pledged that the IDF “will not allow any attempt to harm the dam, and will act with great force against these attempts.”

The announcement came as the IDF separately confirmed that it has been conducting raids in recent days beyond its declared “forward defense line,” the boundary demarcating Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon.

A military official said the expanded operations aim to push Hezbollah farther from the border and better protect the security zone, in response to the terror group’s increased use of first-person view (FPV) drones in attacks on IDF troops in southern Lebanon and in northern Israel.

In a video statement, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said troops are carrying out ground operations “in places where I, as a battalion commander, was unable to reach, and they are doing so with great success.”

The IDF also announced that 2,500 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed in Lebanon since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran — 800 of them since a porous ceasefire took effect on April 16. Since the outbreak of the multi-front war, around 8,000 Hezbollah terrorists have been killed by Israel, according to the military.

Among those killed in the past two weeks, the IDF said, were several senior Hezbollah field commanders. The announcement followed intelligence confirming the deaths of “the most senior field commanders of Hezbollah,” the military stated.

They include the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in the Khiam area; an assistant to the deputy commander of the Badr regional division; the intelligence officer for the Beaufort Castle area; the chief of engineering in the Yohmor area and his deputy; the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in Jibchit; and the chief of engineering in the Jouaiya area.