As pressure mounts from the government to launch an operation against Hezbollah to secure the north, the IDF provided Israel Hayom with an assessment of the state of Hezbollah forces and its arsenal along the border and in Lebanon.
According to the IDF, while there were over 2,000 Radwan and regular Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon after October 7, that number is believed to have been reduced to a few hundred by now, some of them a few kilometers away from the border.
The terrifying number of 180,000 Hezbollah rockets is also a misleading number, according to the IDF. That number includes all projectiles in the Hezbollah arsenal, most of which are short-range mortar rounds.
Per the IDF, the actual number of rockets as popularly understood stands at about 40,000 short-range rockets, and 5,000 medium range rockets. A serious number, but many of these and their launchers have since been fired or destroyed in the multiple IDF strikes along the border.
Regarding Hezbollah, Netanyahu said today (Sunday) that he has instructed the military and defense forces to prepare for a significant operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
A senior defense source speaking to N12 News said that Israel is moving closer to a broad operation in Lebanon, though no exact date has been set, yet.