US Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised Israel the US would support an IDF preemptive strike on Hezbollah forces or equipment in Lebanon used for an immediate attack on the Jewish State, according to the New York Times on Thursday, citing an anonymous senior US official.
Blinken also affirmed that if the IDF would indeed launch such a strike, Israel should not use it to broaden its attack on the terror group, the official added.
Blinken’s promise reportedly came during his visit to Israel and the region earlier in August as part of the US push to achieve a hostage deal and in an attempt to quell tensions in the area.
Earlier this week, following intelligence information indicating Hezbollah was set to launch aerial threats on vast areas of Israel, including Tel Aviv and central Israel, the IDF struck preemptively Hezbollah targets.
Israel’s preemptive strike
The IDF conducted some 100 strikes simultaneously, targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers ready to be fired at Israel, with IDF Spokesperson R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari later noting that out of the targets struck, 90% “were short-range rockets directed at Israel’s North.”
Hezbollah claimed it fired 320 rockets at Israel’s North, targeting northern localities such as Safed and Acre, among other places.
The terror group said it had carried out the attack in response to the July killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
Yonah Jeremy Bob, Mathilda Heller, Tovah Lazaroff and Reuters contributed to this report.
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