On Thursday night, the Israeli military launched its most intensive airstrikes on Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern Dahiyeh suburbs of Beirut. Simultaneously, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched airstrikes in Ain Qana in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District. In both cases, the IDF claims it was targeting drone production and storage facilities belonging to Hezbollah.
At 8:36 pm, IDF Arabic Language Spokesman Avichay Adraee began issuing a series of warnings to residents of Dahiyeh of impending Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah’s assets in the area. Adraee warned residents to clear at least 300 meters from several buildings located in Dahiyeh’s Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Burj Al Barajneh neighborhoods.
A subsequent IDF statement claimed the buildings contained underground installations belonging to Hezbollah’s Unit 127 aerial unit that were used to manufacture and store “many thousands of drones at the direction, and with the funding, of Iranian terrorist elements.”
An IDF infographic suggested Hezbollah was producing rail-launched Sayyad-107 loitering munitions in these facilities. These munitions, which have a range of approximately 100 kilometers and a 5-kilogram warhead, were widely used to attack Israel during the recent war with Hezbollah.
Adraee later noted that “despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, Hezbollah’s aerial unit has continued its terrorist activities and the development of its capabilities,” producing “many thousands” of drones after the November 27, 2024 ceasefire.
Israel’s airstrikes on the area soon began. The chronology is as follows:
- At 9:23 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that the IDF launched a wave of warning airstrikes with a low payload explosive—known as a “knock on the roof.”
- At 9:49 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that the IDF had, by then, launched over seven warning airstrikes—while Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) put the number at 10 warning strikes.
- At 10:15 pm, both Adraee and NNA Lebanon announced the onset of Israeli airstrikes on the highlighted buildings, which targeted the installation in Haret Hreik first.
- At 10:22 pm, NNA Lebanon reported a second Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh.
- At 10:32 pm, NNA Lebanon reported a third Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh.
- At 10:49 pm, NNA Lebanon reported a fourth “and very destructive” Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, which kicked up massive plumes of smoke and flames.
- At 10:58 pm, NNA Lebanon reported a sixth Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh.
- At 11:14 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that Israeli jets conducted a seventh airstrike in Dahiyeh.
- At 11:34 pm, NNA Lebanon reported an eighth Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh. Sky News Arabia reported that by 11:39 pm, Dahiyeh had been hit by almost 20 Israeli airstrikes. Other sources alleged a total of 21 airstrikes on the area—15 with drones and six with fighter jets.
Unnamed Lebanese security sources told LBCI and Sky News Arabia that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) sought to “deter the Israeli army from carrying out its threats” by contacting the ceasefire oversight committee “to uncover the threatened locations.” The LAF claimed that it received instructions from the oversight committee to inspect a building in Mrayjeh prior to Adraee’s warnings, inspected and documented the absence of any military hardware, and sent its evidence to the ceasefire oversight committee. In separate comments to AFP, an unnamed Lebanese military official claimed the suspected site in Mrayjeh consisted of “a destroyed building project.”
The LAF claims it was then blindsided by Adraee’s warning at 8:36 pm of impending strikes on other areas of Dahiyeh: Hadath, Haret Hreik, and Burj Al Barajneh. Israeli Channel 12 news, however, quoted an unnamed Israeli diplomatic source who claimed Israel “notified the United States from the outset regarding the strike” on Dahiyeh. A US official confirmed the Israeli notification to The Wall Street Journal, which reported, “Washington has no objections to the strike.” The official said the United States held Lebanese President Joseph Aoun “responsible for ensuring Hezbollah does not rebuild.”
The LAF, however, alleges to have notified the committee that it would send a unit to Dahiyeh to inspect the newly threatened areas to prevent the Israeli strikes. Per the LAF’s claims, Washington conveyed this message to Israel, upon which, the unnamed Lebanese security sources told LBCI and Sky News Arabia, “the Israeli army refused,” rebuffing Lebanon’s entreaties to deal with the situation itself.
The LAF has provided somewhat contradictory versions of what occurred next. LAF sources told LBCI that the Lebanese Army “kept its distance” from the areas to be struck upon the IDF’s refusal. However, a separate LBCI report claimed that an LAF patrol reached one of the sites, inspected it, and found it was empty of any military equipment or weapons while the IDF was conducting its warning strikes. In a third version of events, an unnamed Lebanese military official told AFP that “the [Lebanese] army attempted to head to the first position highlighted [by Adraee] but the Israeli warning strikes prevented the Lebanese Army from completing its mission.” Finally, the LAF’s subsequent official statement claimed, “LAF patrols headed to several of the sites to inspect them despite the [Israeli] enemy’s refusal of [LAF’s] overtures.”
At 10:32 pm, amidst the ongoing strikes in Dahiyeh, IDF Arabic Language Spokesman Adraee issued another warning to the residents of Ain Qana in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Nabatieh District to clear 500 meters from two specified buildings. Adraee later claimed that Hezbollah installations housed in the highlighted buildings were used to “produce attack and intelligence gathering drones and to improve Hezbollah’s reconnaissance capabilities.”
At 10:29 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that residents of Debbine and Blatt in the Nabatieh Governorate’s Marjayoun District, alongside other southern Lebanese villages, received phone calls warning them to leave their homes. At 11:44 pm, NNA Lebanon reported that an Israeli drone targeted the highlighted buildings in Ain Qana, and Israel conducted a follow-up airstrike at 11:57 pm. The Israeli strikes reportedly wounded three unidentified people.
