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The dawn of August 25 saw salvoes of rockets and swarms of drones flying from Lebanon toward occupied Palestine, each from a different direction, heading to a particular target.

15 minutes after 5:00 am, right after Hezbollah's fighters performed the Dawn prayer, Operation Arbaeen started to unravel.

On this day, the world woke up to Hezbollah's retaliation that had kept "Israel" on pins and needles for a little over three weeks.

It all started on July 30, when the Israeli occupation crossed all red lines and targeted a residential building in the Southern Suburb of Beirut.

The target was top Hezbollah commander Sayyed Fouad Shokor, whose martyrdom was confirmed the following day. Five civilians - three women and two children - and Iranian advisor Milad Bidi were also killed in the aggression. With this assassination, the Israeli occupation crossed several red lines: targeting the Southern Suburb of Beirut, targeting a residential building, killing civilians, and assassinating a top commander.

Fouad Shokor, a senior military commander and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's close confidant was targeted by "Israel" in the Southern Suburb of #Beirut, #Lebanon, on Tuesday evening.

Here's everything you need to know about him. pic.twitter.com/9kM0IscQr7

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 31, 2024

 

Although Hezbollah's operation fell within the framework of operations Hezbollah had been carrying out in support of Gaza since October 8, its particularity is that it came to avenge the blood that "Israel" had insolently spilled.

Ushering in a new phase of confrontations, in his speech following the aggression and assassination, Sayyed Nasrallah said, "We are ahead of a major battle where matters have surpassed the issue of support fronts," announcing, "We are in an open battle on all fronts that has entered a new phase."

He emphasized that any subsequent escalation "depends on the reactions of the [Israeli] occupation," as he vowed that Hezbollah's response would be "tough, wise, and calculated."

Read more: Beirut's Dahiya bids farewell to Hezbollah martyr leader Fouad Shokor

Then came the anticipated response

At 6:11 am, the Military Media of the Islamic Resistance announced the launch of an "initial response" to the assassination of Commander Shokor and the aggression on civilians, on the anniversary of Imam Hussein's Arbaeen, hence the operation's codename, by launching salvoes of rockets on border sites and a large number of drones deep into the occupied Palestinian territories.

In a statement, the Resistance clarified that the attack targeted strategic Israeli military sites, adding that relevant details "would be disclosed later on" in a speech by the group's chief.

The Resistance had struck multiple Israeli sites, military barracks, and Iron Dome installations in northern occupied Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan with heavy salvoes of rockets in phase one of the operation, paving the way for swarms of drones heading to their targets.

The statement was concluded with emphasis that the Resistance remains at the highest level of readiness, prepared to respond decisively to any Israeli violation or aggression, warning to deal heavy blows to the enemy, particularly if civilians are targeted.

'Indeed We shall take vengeance upon the guilty'

Later, Hezbollah released another statement that started with the Quranic verse, "Indeed We shall take vengeance upon the guilty," confirming that its fighters had successfully completed the "preliminary response".

In his speech a few hours later, at 6:00 pm, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah explained that the operation included two phases. The initial phase was focused on targeting sites and barracks in northern occupied Palestine with the hundreds of intended rockets to exhaust and deplete the Iron Dome and interceptor missiles, which paved the way for phase two, which saw the swarms of drones heading toward their intended targets.

Phase one

In detail, Hezbollah's fighters initiated phase one of Operation Arbaeen, engaging enemy sites and positions throughout the border with occupied Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan with hundreds of Katyusha rockets, implementing the overwhelming firepower tactic to enable phase two. Eleven targets were struck from different directions to distract and deplete the Israeli air defenses to let the drones through. 

Following is the list of targets in the occupied Palestinian territory and the occupied Syrian Golan that the Resistance successfully struck in phase one:

1. Beit Hillel Barracks - Al-Sahel Battalion HQs

2. Al-Za'oura emplacement - Fixed emplacement of the 769th brigade artillery battery

3. Keila Barracks  in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights - Air and missile defense HQs of the 210th division

4. Yoav Barracks - Artillery and missile battalion base of the Northern Command

5. Nafah base - 210th Division HQs

6. Yarden Barracks - Artillery regiment and armored brigade of the 210th Division HQs

7. Ramot Naftali Barracks - Border company center 

8. Ein Zeitimm - Northern Corps HQs 

9. Meron Airbase -  Military air traffic control base 

10. Neve Ziv - Artillery emplacement of the 282nd Brigade

11. Ga'aton HQs - Newly established HQs for the accommodation of the 146th Division's leadership

340 Katyusha rockets were launched, and while many were intercepted, as was the plan, others impacted their targets directly. "Our initial plan was to launch 300 rockets in this operation, but we ended up launching 340," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah affirmed in his speech, as he detailed the specifics of the operation. 

Phase two

Following the success of phase one, with the Israeli air defenses now exhausted, phase two was initiated, which saw the launch of an unspecified number of drones. With the Glilot base and the Ein Shemer airbases in their crosshairs, Hezbollah's drones made their way from Lebanon to occupied Palestine, achieving their missions fully.

While Israeli media and the Israeli prime minister himself claimed that all the drones were downed, Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed in his speech that a considerable number of the drones did reach their targets and impacted them directly. "A significant number of drones hit their intended targets, but the enemy is keeping all relevant details concealed," he affirmed.

The main targets were not specified in Hezbollah's statements that announced the operation, and it was left up to Sayyed Nasrallah to make the revelation. In his speech, Hezbollah's Secretary-General announced that the primary targets of the operation were the central Glilot base of Israeli military intelligence Aman and Unit 8200, located near Tel Aviv, and the Ein Shemer airbase.

Ein Shemer

The Ein Shemer base constitutes a multi-layered air defense missile base as revealed by an identification card released by Hezbollah's Military Media Unit. 

It is equipped with Arrow and David's Sling anti-air systems, as well as an Iron Dome platform. It houses the headquarters of the Menashe Territorial Brigade, as well as an airport designated for drone testing. It is located east of the occupied city of al-Khudaira (Hadera) and is 72 km away from Lebanon.

Glilot

The Glilot Base is the central Israeli base of the Military Intelligence Division, Aman. It is located on the northern outskirts of Tel Aviv and is 110 km away from the Lebanese border. It is home to the central hub of Unit 8200, which is responsible for communications and cyber intelligence. It hosts a school for military intelligence and a group of military leadership colleges. The base also houses Aman's Communications Battalion.

The Military Media later posted a more detailed identification card, breaking down the different sections encompassing the base.

As per the footage, it includes a maintenance area, a satellite dishes area, the Aman Command Center, a Communications Battalion area, a kitchen and a dining area, Unit 9900 buildings, and Unit 8200's HQ.

Israeli Unit 8200 

It is considered one of the largest IOF units and is affiliated with the Aman intelligence body. It constitutes one of the three main units utilizing technology and artificial intelligence and is associated with the IOF's Intelligence Division.

It is located 112 km from the Lebanese-Palestinian border and 1.5 km from north Tel Aviv. The Unit is situated near Herzliya at the Glilot junction, where the Mossad HQs is located.

Among its responsibilities are:

- Commanding electronic warfare, espionage, and surveillance;
- Issuing early warnings and feeding the AI system of the air, land, and naval forces;
- Working closely with the Sayeret Matkal military unit of the military's general staff;
- Playing a key role in "Israel's" assassinations abroad, including the assassination of top commander Sayyed Fouad Shokor.

Why these particular targets

The process of choosing these particular targets was detailed in Sayyed Nasrallah's speech. As a preliminary step, the Resistance, upon deliberations, ruled out targeting Israeli settlers or infrastructure. As specified by Sayyed Nasrallah, they had to be military, directly related to the assassination of the martyred leader, and located deep inside the occupied territory and close to Tel Aviv. Based on these criteria, Hezbollah chose its targets.

Fighters' on the ground movement drives 'Israel' out of mind

As Hezbollah's fighters were preparing the launch platforms, Israeli aircraft, be they warplanes or drones swarming Lebanon's airspace, must have detected some kind of movement on the ground, driving the occupation forces crazy and prompting them to conduct blind airstrikes across a wide area, dubbing them later "preemptive strikes".

With hundreds of strikes targeting several southern Lebanese villages, was the operation thwarted? 

The answer lies in the hundreds of rockets and drones launched from Lebanon toward occupied Palestine, eyeing two particular targets.

At dawn Sunday, Hezbollah launched a retaliatory strike against the Israeli occupation in response to the aggression on #Beirut on July 30, which killed senior commander #FouadShokor and 7 civilians, injuring 78 others.

The core of the Resistance's operation involved drones… pic.twitter.com/HMffWzz4HC

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) August 25, 2024

This was explained in detail in Sayyed Nasrallah's speech, as he debunked Israeli claims made before, throughout, and after the operation, calling them "sheer lies". 

Israeli narrative debunked

Debunking Israeli claims of carrying out airstrikes that nipped Hezbollah's operation in the bud by carrying out alleged "preemptive strikes", the Lebanese Resistance leader affirmed that the enemy had no intel whatsoever and "did not thwart anything," stressing that all its raids an hour before the operation were the result of the natural movement of the fighters on the ground in preparation for the operation. 

To rub salt into the Israeli wound, he affirmed that the initial plan for phase one was to launch 300 rockets, but they ended up launching 340.

"What was planned was achieved to the fullest," Sayyed Nasrallah asserted.

With a simple mathematical operation, of course based on Israeli claims of destroying thousands of missiles and missile launchers, and supposedly only one fighter was operating each launcher, then Hezbollah's martyrs should have been in thousands, which is nowhere near the truth, as Hezbollah mourned only two fighters that day. This brings into question the Israeli claim which stated that "thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers were struck simultaneously by some 100 IAF fighter jets in the preemptive attacks."

﴿من المؤمنين رجالٌ صدقوا ما عاهدوا الله عليه فمنهم من قضى نحبه ومنهم من ينتظر وما بدلوا تبديلا﴾
صدق الله العلي العظيم
بمزيد من الفخر والإعتزاز، تزف المقاومة الإسلامية الشهيد المجاهد حمزة محمد زلغوط "ذو الفقار" 1992 من بلدة حاريص في جنوب لبنان، والذي ارتقى شهيداً #على_طريق_القدس pic.twitter.com/t4MnwGyyJ7

— iBra 💉 إبرة ® (@ib_reb) August 25, 2024

﴿من المؤمنين رجالٌ صدقوا ما عاهدوا الله عليه فمنهم من قضى نحبه ومنهم من ينتظر وما بدلوا تبديلا﴾
صدق الله العلي العظيم
بمزيد من الفخر والإعتزاز، تزف المقاومة الإسلامية الشهيد المجاهد خضر موسى سويد "ذو الفقار" 1987 من بلدة حاريص في جنوب لبنان، والذي ارتقى شهيداً #على_طريق_القدس pic.twitter.com/rgz9EMbXRC

— iBra 💉 إبرة ® (@ib_reb) August 25, 2024

Not only that, but as Sayyed Nasrallah confirmed, no rocket launchers were targeted before the operation, adding, however, that only two were struck, yet only after the operation was completed.

Meanwhile, the entirety of the drone launch platforms remained intact both before and after the operation.

Furthermore, the Lebanese Resistance leader affirmed that "all the raids launched by the enemy did not target the area of operation" and that "this was nothing less than an aggression," before adding that supposing it was a preemptive strike, "it did not have any impact whatsoever on today’s operation." 

On the enemy's claims of bombing strategic and precision missiles that were prepared to target Tel Aviv, Sayyed Nasrallah stressed that the Resistance had no intention, in the first place, of using such weapons in this particular operation. So where did the precision weapons "Israel" claimed it destroyed come from?

Yet, being a master of psychological warfare, Hezbollah's leader left the door open, leaving the Israeli occupation on edge as he affirmed that this does not mean that the Resistance would not use such weapons in the future, or the near future to be more precise.

He further pointed out that the sites targeted by the occupation forces that morning on the outskirts of towns were either empty or had been evacuated at the request of martyr Fouad Shokor prior to his assassination, digging a bigger hole in the Israeli story of thwarting the operation.

Sayyed Nasrallah's debunking found its way into Israeli media as the Israeli Army Radio itself reflected on details of August 25's operation, admitting that the IOF did estimate that Hezbollah did not attempt to launch precision missiles in this particular attack in order to maintain this capability and keep it intact thus far.

The Israeli outlet also admitted, "We did not know exactly what Hezbollah's attack plan was and the exact targets it planned to hit, so we launched a broad attack on thousands of missile launchers to hit as many potential launchers as possible," admitting to the blind strikes that were not based on any intel.

"We also did not know the expected time of the attack."

Read more: Fact-check: Hezbollah's Secretary General debunks Israeli claims

'Israel' does what it knows best; censorship

Had Hezbollah's operation been thwarted and had the military's preemptive strikes yielded any results, why would the Israeli occupation ban coverage of the damage inflicted by Hezbollah's strikes deep inside the occupied territories?

The gag order was indeed issued, as reported by Western and Israeli media.

The Telegraph, quoting sources, reported that Netanyahu issued a gag order, demanding reporters to obtain permission before publishing on “damage caused by rocket attacks to strategic infrastructure or to military bases” to avoid “harm to Israeli forces on the ground."

Why implement such a ban if Netanyahu's story checks out? Too easy to answer.

Mission accomplished?

One might wonder: with censorship implemented, how can Hezbollah's operation be verified amid all the Israeli claims of success? Again, being a master of psychological warfare, Sayyed Nasrallah linked the end of the operation to facts on the ground; i.e. monitoring its outcomes.

"If the outcome is satisfactory and achieves the intended goal, we will consider the retaliatory operation complete, but if the result is not sufficient [as per the Resistance's terms], we reserve the right to respond at a time of our choosing," he maintained.

What a way to instigate engagement amid the enemy's obscurement of the truth regarding the two targeted bases.

Israelis have long blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the status quo and have repeatedly accused him of prolonging the war even when the result is compiling one failure over the other. And the latest "preemptive strikes" charade is nothing but another similar failure.

Among the initial results of Operation Arbaeen on that day, as reported by Israeli media, were:

- Shutting down Ben Gurion airport
- Cancelling flights to and from the occupation entity
- Air France canceling flights to Tel Aviv on Sunday
- Suspending lectures at Haifa University and Technion
- Closing public beaches in Haifa and Tabaraya
- Dozens of housing units were damaged in the North
- Raising military readiness and alert to the highest level
- Declaring a state of emergency across the occupation entity

Meticulous, irrefutable response

With its meticulous complex operation, which entails both military and intelligence elements of the highest level, Hezbollah did not give the Israelis, mainly bloodthirsty Netanyahu, the pretext to wage a comprehensive war, not that the Israeli occupation needs such a pretext, but it all lies in the deterrence equation the Lebanese Resistance party imposed and is trying to uphold. As put by Sayyed Nasrallah once, the group will never be dragged into a war of Netanyahu's choosing or timing.

With its "tough, wise, and calculated" response, Hezbollah reinstated the rules of engagement  Netanyahu shattered in his aggression on the Southern Suburb of Beirut.

Operation Arbaeen stands as yet another proof of Hezbollah's technical and military prowess, and the fact that Sayyed Nasrallah indicated in his speech that ballistic and precision missiles have not yet been employed constitutes another deterrent factor, alongside "Israel's" defeat in the 2006 July War, that prevents "Israel" from launching an all-out war on Lebanon.

While the Lebanese Resistance leader reassured the residents of Beirut and called on them to return to their homes, empowering them with a sense of tranquility and calm, he vowed that the Resistance will remain steadfast in its support for Gaza, its people, Palestine, and the nation’s sanctities, regardless of the circumstances, challenges, or sacrifices, asserting that any hopes of silencing the support fronts will be futile.

This is the case as hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers, who are nowhere near returning to their settlements on the Lebanese-Palestinian border any time soon, remain trapped in areas to which they've been displaced.

Some have even gone as far as accusing Netanyahu of sacrificing the North on the altar of maintaining Tel Aviv's security, decrying the fact that they were turned, by Hezbollah's almost daily operations, into sitting ducks within the Resistance's range of fire.

With Hezbollah's operation and his subsequent speech, Sayyed Nasrallah shattered the remnants of the internal front of a crumbling Israeli administration, proving, yet again, that "Israel" is indeed weaker than a spider's web.