NEW YORK, October 2. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has destroyed about half of the missiles of the Shiite Hezbollah movement during recent airstrikes on the territory of Lebanon, The New York Times (NYT) reported, citing unnamed senior Israeli and US officials.
According to their information, these were the missiles that Hezbollah "had accumulated over more than three decades." Nevertheless, although the Israeli army has destroyed many of them, the movement's arsenal remains formidable, with tens of thousands of projectiles scattered across Lebanon, the officials specified. They estimate that massive Hezbollah barrages could overwhelm Israel’s "Iron Dome" anti-projective defense system.
On September 23, Israel launched an offensive operation, dubbed Northern Arrows, aimed at undermining the military infrastructure of Hezbollah, carrying out massive airstrikes across Lebanon, with dozens of settlements in the south and east of the country targeted. On September 27, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in one of the Israeli strikes on Beirut with his death officially confirmed by the Shiite party. Overnight on October 1, the IDF announced a limited ground operation in Lebanon’s borderline areas.