Ceasefire on our Northern Border

The Northern Front

I want to begin with a quick recap of the past 14 months on Israel’s northern border.

Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah launched over 17,000 rockets, missiles, and UAVs into Israel, killing dozens of civilians and forcing more than 60,000 Israelis to be evacuated from their homes. This relentless campaign followed years of Hezbollah building attack infrastructure along the southern Lebanese border with the goal of carrying out its “October 7^th-style” ‘Conquer the Galilee’ invasion plan, in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The result has been a sustained threat to the safety and security of Israel’s northern communities.

In response, The IDF has been operating against Hezbollah by dismantling its attack capabilities, neutralizing key commanders, and degrading weapons supply routes and operational infrastructure, to ensure October 7th can never happen on our northern border and to enable all the residents of northern Israel to return to their homes safely, with security. 

Throughout the past year, in an effort to prevent Hezbollah regrouping and rebuilding its terror capabilities, we have conducted operations - precisely targeting Hezbollah’s terror hubs and the key routes it uses to smuggle weapons and money into Lebanon.

Click here to read more about Hezbollah’s dirty money.

As part of these efforts, we recently carried out an operation against Hezbollah’s largest precision-guided missile production site in Lebanon near the Syrian border. The facility was located underground within an extensive network of tunnels stretching 1.4 kilometers and leading into many rooms, with each room dedicated to producing different components of precision-guided missiles and surface-to-surface missiles.

Last week, shortly before the ceasefire, the IDF conducted a precision strike in Beirut, targeting Jafar Ali Samaha, a senior operations officer in Hezbollah’s Aerial Unit - Unit 127. This unit has been central to launching UAV and missile attacks against Israel, often operating from civilian areas in southern Lebanon. Over the past year, the IDF has destroyed 70% of this unit’s stockpile, eliminated it’s chain of command, and dismantled critical production and storage facilities, ensuring a significant reduction in Hezbollah’s aerial threat.

In all our operations in Lebanon, our goal was clear - remove threats to civilian communities in Israel.

At 4am on November 27th, last Wednesday, a ceasefire agreement came into effect. IDF forces are currently still stationed in southern Lebanon, and will gradually leave Lebanon.

We will continue to defend the borders and people of Israel from any threat posed by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

---

The Southern Front

I would now like to move to discuss the situation along our southern border.

As I’m sure many of you are aware, on shabbat (Saturday), the Hamas terrorist organization released a video of one of our hostages held in Gaza - Idan Alexander, a 20 year old US citizen, who has been held captive by them for the past 423 days. 

The video released is yet another demonstration of the psychological warfare being waged by Hamas and the terrible toll of the past 423 days of suffering and darkness.

The urgency of bringing Idan and the 100 remaining hostages home cannot be overstated.

We will not stop fighting until we bring them back home.

For those of you celebrating, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and would like to wish you a joyful and festive holiday season in the upcoming month. The IDF is deeply thankful for the steadfast support of our allies and the unwavering strength of the Israeli people.