Israel sent a clear message to its neighbors with the IDF’s airstrike on a key Hezbollah terrorist in Beirut on Sunday.
This came a day after clashes in Gaza, where the IDF also carried out targeted strikes after Israel accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire.
There are rising tensions on all of Israel’s fronts. For instance, in Gaza, the IDF confirmed on Saturday that “following the violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF and the ISA [Shin Bet] targeted Hamas terrorists in precise strikes across the Gaza Strip.”
In one of the strikes, the terrorist Alaa’ Haddadeh, who served as the head of supply in Hamas’s production headquarters, was eliminated. He was a central source of knowledge in the organization’s supply and production systems, and, during the war, he operated to transfer weapons from Hamas’s headquarters to battalion and field commanders for use against IDF troops, the army said.
The IDF also struck Lebanon on Saturday, eliminating the terrorist Kamel Reza Karnabsh in the Mayfadoun area in southern Lebanon. The terrorist took part in Hezbollah’s reestablishment attempts in the area, according to the IDF.
Israel could see breakdown of ceasefires with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran
The pattern is clear. Israel is carrying out increased strikes on fronts where ceasefires are in place. Israel’s leadership wants to have a policy of having ceasefires and freedom of action on these fronts.
This was also evident after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led a large group to the Syrian border last week to see the buffer zone. The goal was to send a message to Damascus. Jerusalem believes that Syria’s leader was energized by meeting US President Donald Trump earlier this week, and the goal is to send a message to him that Israel can do what it wants in Syria. In essence, this is the same message in Gaza and Lebanon. It’s also a message to Iran.
Striking Beirut shows that Israel can do what it wants. In theory, this might prod Lebanon’s leadership to disarm Hezbollah. It could also alienate them and cause them to do less. They want to secure Lebanon and not have daily Israeli strikes. Reports in Arabic on X/Twitter after the Beirut strike on Sunday claimed Israel targeted Ali Al-Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s chief of staff, who replaced Fuad Shukr after his assassination last year.
Israel has used precision strikes as a kind of combination with diplomacy in the past. During the “war between the wars” campaign in Syria, Israel carried out thousands of strikes on Iranian targets to prevent Iranian entrenchment there between 2012 and 2024.
Was the campaign successful? It is unclear. The Assad regime collapsed in December 2024 in part because Israel weakened Hezbollah. However, Jerusalem has been more vocal in rhetorical attacks on the new leaders in Damascus than Jerusalem was regarding Assad’s regime.
After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Israel increased attacks on Syria, ostensibly to back the Druze. Israeli officials call the interim Syrian president a “jihadist,” which has alienated the new government in Syria, even though it might have had reason to ally with Israel against Iran and Hezbollah. As such, Israel now has tensions with Syria, as well as Lebanon, and in Gaza, the West Bank, and on other fronts. The Beirut strike may send a message to Iran.
The challenge for Israel is that if all the ceasefires break down – with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran – then Israel’s reserve army system will be stretched again. After sending so many soldiers to war for two years, Israelis want to spend time at work and at home. Calling them up again, while 50,000 haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men avoid the draft, will continue to strain the system.
It was for this reason that Israel’s early leaders sought to wage short wars, not open-ended wars that went on for years with call-ups. Israel nevertheless faced border chaos and wars before, in the 1950s, for instance. However, the threats have changed and become more complex than the “infiltrators” of the 1950s, when Israel could use a small commando unit like 101 to enact revenge raids.
Beirut is a warning. However, it could become another norm, like “mowing the grass” of threats in the West Bank. It will come down to how Beirut responds and also what Washington may say. Netanyahu said on Sunday, before the Beirut strike, that “we will continue to do everything necessary to prevent Hezbollah from re-establishing its threat capability against us. This is also what we are doing in Gaza – Hamas continues to violate the ceasefire, and we are acting accordingly, independently of anyone.”
He also said that Israel doesn’t ask for approvals for these attacks, a reference apparently to claims Israel has been asking the US for approval.
“All the talk that ‘We must receive approvals for this’ from one source or another is simply an absolute lie. We operate independently of anyone. Immediate actions to thwart attacks are taken by the IDF automatically. As for the responses, that goes through the defense minister and eventually reaches me, and we decide independently of any factor, and that is how it should be. Israel is responsible for its own security.”
The Beirut strike seems to reflect this characterization of Israel’s policy.
“All the talk that 'We must receive approvals for this' from one source or another is simply an absolute lie. We operate independently of anyone. Immediate actions to thwart attacks are taken by the IDF automatically. As for the responses, that goes through the Minister of Defense and eventually reaches me, and we decide independently of any factor, and that is how it should be. Israel is responsible for its own security." The Beirut strike seems to reflect this characterization of Israel’s policy.