The Israel Air Force on Sunday afternoon attacked Hezbollah’s stronghold of Dahiyeh in Beirut, after the Lebanese terror group ignored the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump on June 1.
This attack – foreshadowed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz – was a low-grade strike on Beirut, an apparent attempt to walk the tightrope between increasing pressure on Hezbollah and avoiding antagonizing Iran too much over a more serious attack on its main proxy.
Despite Israel’s efforts to keep its attack on Beirut limited, some Islamic regime officials hinted at a threat to attack Israel later Sunday night in retaliation.
An Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post that, according to the understandings underlying the joint Israel and US-Lebanon ceasefire agreement announced on June 4, following the June 1 freeze on attacking Beirut, a Hezbollah attack on Israeli civilian territory would entitle Israel to respond by striking the terror group in Dahiyeh.
A senior US official told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Monday that Washington did not provide a "green light" for Sunday's IDF strikes on Beirut.
"We had no part in this,” added another senior US official.
Washington was reportedly informed ahead of the strikes, according to Saudi outlet al-Hadath.
IDF drops at least 10 large bombs
The IDF dropped at least 10 one-ton bombs on one command center, which comprised multiple compounds.
IDF sources suggested some mid-level Hezbollah operatives were struck, while other IDF statements seemed to hint that an empty command center might have been struck.
Ebrahim Rezaei, an Iranian lawmaker and the military secretary of the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a post on X/Twitter on Sunday that Tehran would give a “painful” response to Israel’s attack on Dahiyeh.
“Look at the sky over the occupied lands [Israel] tonight.”
The Post understands that IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir’s approval of the attack on Beirut, after his morning visit to the Gaza border, and followed by flying to the scene of the terror attack near Kochav Yair in the afternoon, indicates that Israel is still in the middle of a multi-front interconnected war.
This was even before Iran’s threat later in the day, which suggested that a fourth front might heat up that same day.
Zamir has wanted to attack Beirut for several weeks to respond harshly to Hezbollah’s unwillingness to stop firing on Israeli civilian towns in the North.
However, the chief-of-staff also prefers to end the war with Hezbollah immediately if, in any case, it will be forced to do so within the coming weeks, with no new major strategic achievements possible – due to diplomatic limits on how far the IDF can advance in Lebanon.
In other words, the Post understands, Zamir was ready to strike hard or invoke an immediate ceasefire depending on the specific circumstances, but wants to avoid a useless middle ground in which IDF soldiers keep getting wounded for several additional weeks, with no new strategic achievements.
“In Lebanon, our forces eliminated 350 terrorists in the past week alone. They captured Beaufort Ridge, where they discovered a massive underground infrastructure. We are completing the elimination of the terrorist villages adjacent to our border. We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run. We will not allow firing at our territory or our communities, and we will act accordingly,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Dahiyeh attack comes as Trump, Netanyahu disagree over Beirut strikes
On June 1, Netanyahu and Katz had given the order for the IDF to return to heavy attacks on Dahiyeh, but by that same evening, Trump announced a new ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese government, thus blocking the IAF attack.
In a series of embarrassing moments, Trump vetoed Netanyahu’s attack and leaked that he had called him “f***ing crazy” for wanting to launch wars all the time, which are leading to him and Israel being hated around the world.
The prime minister received intense criticism for his handling of the situation from both within his coalition and from the opposition.
However, Hezbollah has largely ignored the ceasefire, continuing to periodically fire rockets at Israel, including over the weekend.
This appears to have either given Trump the green light or prompted the prime minister to risk the US president’s ire, lest he face additional criticism within Israel.
Last week, Netanyahu said that the order was given to attack Beirut following increased Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli civilians throughout the North.
Their statement last week came after top US officials appeared to greenlight striking Beirut again, as nuclear talks with Iran dragged on with Washington holding Israel back in Lebanon as a concession to the Islamic Republic, based on the assumption that a deal would have occurred in prior weeks.
IDF takes Beaufort Ridge in Lebanon
Meanwhile, the IDF announced on May 31 that its ground troops had taken over the Beaufort Ridge outpost and Wadi al-Saluki areas beyond the Litani River, but despite those moves, Hezbollah managed to shower the North with drones and reportedly over 50 rockets throughout the day.
On May 26, in response to ongoing Hezbollah drone attacks, which have harmed an increasing number of IDF soldiers, Israel confirmed that the military had invaded deeper into Lebanon beyond the April 17 Yellow Line and the Litani River.
Further, the IDF added that it was operating near Nabatieh, another significant Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, and is prepared to expand its operations there as well.
The IDF has continued to operate around Nabatieh, the farthest that military ground forces have advanced, around 20 kilometers from the Israeli border, whereas, in the old and now seemingly broken April 17 ceasefire, the IDF was set at around 10 km from the border.
Jerusalem Post Staff, Amichai Stein, and Reuters contributed to this report.