Israel’s air campaign on Lebanon surpasses 2006 war bombardment: Military expert

Israel’s ongoing air campaign against targets in Lebanon of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group has reached a whole new level, exceeding any previous military campaigns against Lebanon in past decades, military expert Riad Kahwaji said on Tuesday.

“This is a very intense bombardment. It even, in some cases, exceeds what we saw in the whole 33 days of the 2006 second Lebanon war so far it exceeded that intensity. The number of casualties is half of what fell in 33 days in Lebanon,” he said during an interview on W News presented by Rosanna Lockwood.

Last week, Israel began launching airstrikes on the capital Beirut and southern parts of Lebanon, that are Hezbollah strongholds, killing at least 560 people and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The air strikes followed two explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members across Lebanon which have killed at least 39 people and wounded around 3,000.

Although Israel refused to make any official comment on the explosions, the Middle Eastern country was widely blamed for them.

Hezbollah infiltrated

Kahwaji added that Hezbollah has suffered serious setbacks due to the latest events with its communication and command structure severely weakened.

“(…) this is a clear indication of an intelligence failure on the part of Hezbollah and that the Israelis in so many ways, either electronically or through human intelligence, have built a good database and have developed a strong awareness of the determining the whereabouts of these commanders and targeting them in real time, as we saw today,” he said.

Israeli strikes since last week have killed several high-ranking Hezbollah commanders, including Ibrahim Aqil, the chief of the organization’s armed elite Radwan force, and Ibrahim Qubaisi, senior commander of the missile and rocket force.

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian militant group Hamas pushed into Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage. Israel reacted with attacks on the Gaza Strip that have left at least 41,400 people dead, majorly civilians.

On October 8, Hezbollah joined the fight in solidarity with Hamas launching attacks on northern Israel forcing the evacuation of most of the area.