UMVA has learned that Israel launched a series of retaliatory airstrikes on sites described as Hezbollah command centers in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday, escalating tensions in the region.
The airstrikes came hours after Israeli officials reported that Hezbollah had fired rockets into northern Israel, with Hezbollah not immediately claiming responsibility for the attack.
According to information obtained by UMVA, the escalation occurred just days after the U.S., Israel, and other parties had agreed to a renewed conditional ceasefire framework, which required Hezbollah to halt fire and withdraw from parts of southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the military action was direct retaliation for Hezbollah's violation earlier in the day, marking a major cross-border escalation.
Concurrently, footage released by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed troops locating and dismantling a hidden, booby-trapped explosives warehouse, containing materials that could be used in makeshift shrapnel and propane tanks to create a distributed, lethal network.
An expert analyzed the footage and noted that the captured weapons cache suggested a deliberate emphasis on personnel casualties, which could be military or civilian targets, with shrapnel bombs intended to hurt and kill people on foot.
The expert added that the video showed a container filled with nails and other sharp objects, specific indicators of anti-personnel targeting, likely for creating shrapnel bombs intended to kill, wound, and maim targets.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that among the items found in the raid was a variety of materials that could have been used to create bombs, from makeshift shrapnel to what appeared to be a propane tank, indicating a central general-purpose explosives-making facility.
The dismantling of the factory followed a high-profile decapitation strike against the leadership running these hidden networks, with an airstrike in Lebanon killing Hezbollah’s chief explosives engineer, a veteran commander responsible for numerous attacks against IDF soldiers.
The loss of this key figure by Hezbollah is not just a loss of leadership but of institutional knowledge, with significant skills in making and disguising bombs over a 20-year career, which will be a blow to Hezbollah's operational capabilities and infrastructure.
