Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Sunday on the recent escalation between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.
"We inflicted a series of blows on Hezbollah. If Hezbollah did not get the message, I promise you - it will get the message now," Netanyahu said.
He also said. "On October 7th, the Hamas terrorist monsters burst into Israel, murdered our people, raped and beheaded our women, burnt babies alive, and took 255 innocent people hostage, including many Americans."
"A day later, on October 8th, another Iranian terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, attacked Israel completely unprovoked. They fired missiles and rockets into our cities. They made 60,000 Israelis leave their homes along the Lebanon border, becoming refugees in their own land. In the subsequent months, they haven't stopped for a single day attacking us," Netanyahu said.
"No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities. We can't accept it either," he declared. "We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes."
Sirens sounded at around 1:10 a.m. Sunday morning, warning over 70 communities in northern Israel of incoming rockets.
Among the communities in the list were Yokne'am, Nazareth, Afula, communities in the Lower Galilee and Jezreel Valley, and the Carmel area.
Initial reports claimed that Hezbollah fired its Fajr-5 missile, for the first time since 2006. One injury was reported. Most of the rockets were intercepted by Israel's missile defense systems.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the barrage on the north, saying, "We fired rockets at the air force base in Ramat David in response to the Israeli attacks."
The IDF stated that about 150 rockets and drones were fired at Israel from Lebanon overnight and Sunday morning, dozens of which were intercepted.
Three people were wounded in a rocket strike in Kiryat Bialik Sunday morning. In addition, 25 cows were killed when a rocket struck a dairy farm in Beit She'arim.
On Friday, in a precise strike, IAF jets guided by the Intelligence Directorate, targeted and eliminated Ibrahim Aqil, head of operations and commander of the Radwan Force of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, during a meeting with Radwan Force commanders in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut.
In addition to Aqil, 15 other Hezbollah terrorists were eliminated in the strike, including senior commanders in the Radwan Force chain of command.
Among the terrorists eliminated, was Abu Hassan Samir, who served as the head of the Radwan Force training unit. He held various positions within the terrorist organization and was commander of the Radwan Force for a decade until early 2024. He was one of the planners and leaders of the "Conquer the Galilee" attack plan and was involved in advancing Hezbollah's entrenchment in southern Lebanon, while attempting to improve the organization's ground combat capabilities. Over the years, and during the first months of the war, he planned and executed numerous shooting attacks and infiltrations into Israeli territory.