provide background to my last post
Major IDF op underway in Bekaa Valley
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Lebanese army and security officials said Tuesday night that a major IDF operation was underway against suspected Hizbullah positions near Baalbeek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with one officer saying the IAF presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."
The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes.
"The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," said one security official.
Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said.
Hizbullah's al-Manar television said IAF helicopters were taking heavy guerrilla fire but had not landed any commandos.
Israeli helicopters also attacked a target 15 kilometers west of Baalbek, starting a huge fire, witnesses said.
Earlier Tuesday, the IAF struck three Hizbullah bunkers in the western zone of southern Lebanon.
Warplanes also hit Hizbullah fighters battling with soldiers near the border as the guerrillas fired mortars into Israel.
Israeli jet fighters struck deep inside Lebanese territory, hitting Hermel, some 120 kilometers north of the Israeli border in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Warplanes fired at least five air-to-surface missiles on the edge of the town, targeting a road linking eastern Lebanon to western regions and the coastline.
About six hours later, warplanes returned to attack Hermel again, hitting a pickup truck loaded with cooking gas tanks, security officials said. The canisters exploded, sending flames shooting up from the vehicle for nearly an hour. The driver had pulled over and exited the vehicle before the attack, and was not hurt, they said.
In the west, Israeli warships offshore in the Mediterranean sent artillery into the villages of Mansouri, Shamaa and Teir Harfan around the port city of Tyre. No casualties were reported.
Another strike at an area near the Syrian border, about 10 kilometers north of Hermel, targeted the Qaa-Homs road, one of four official crossing points between Lebanon and Syria.
Lebanon's official news agency reported Israeli jets also hit early Tuesday near the Masnaa crossing into Syria, which was attacked several times in the last three days.
Tuesday's airstrikes meant that two of the four border crossings are now closed because of damage. Repeated airstrikes have made the main Beirut-Damascus highway impassable.
Meanwhile, during a welcoming ceremony for French tourists at Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday, Tourism Minister, Isaac Herzog praised the IDF for its operations in Lebanon and estimated that the army would continue bombarding Hizbullah infrastructure in the upcoming days.
Herzog added that, so far, during Operation Changing Direction, some 400 Hizbullah guerrillas had been killed by the IDF.
The tourism minister also said that the IDF had destroyed an array of long-range missiles as well as several Hizbullah headquarters and communications rooms.
Earlier, the Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive, a participant said, and rejected a cease-fire until an international force is in place in southern Lebanon.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that Israel was not interested in waging war on Syria but would continue to target convoys smuggling weapons across the border into Lebanon.
On Monday, Syria's army went on high alert in response to the situation.
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