Blood stains cover the ground next to a a car wrecked in a reported Israeli drone attack, as Lebanese army soldiers secure the area in the village of Jadra between Beirut and Saida,on Feb. 10, 2024. Credit: AFP/MAHMOUD ZAYYAT
Following Oct. 8 and the opening of the front in southern Lebanon, Israel carried out several weeks of strikes that seemed limited to south of the Litani River, targeting mainly Hezbollah military positions and other groups fighting along the border. But, the situation changed in early January.
On Jan. 2, a targeted drone attack assassinated a Hamas deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri, almost 100 km inside Lebanese territory, on the outskirts of Beirut. This tactic was repeated a few days later with the assassination of senior Hezbollah military commander Wissam Tawil in Kherbet Selem, southern Lebanon, with explosives that were planted next to the building where he was staying. Earlier in the conflict, in late November, a targeted attack killed the son of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc leader, Mohammad Raad.
Recently, attacks of this kind are following, one after another, hitting or failing to hit their targets and sometimes claiming civilian lives in the process. Attacks on single vehicles, planted bombs, and targeted airstrikes testify to Israel's precision and its ability, both on the technical and intelligence levels, to know who is moving around inside of Lebanon.
Below, in maps and images, we review the targeted Israeli attacks of recent months — some of which achieved their objectives, and others not — against members of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Photo credits to AFP, Reuters, Mohammad Yassin / L'OLJ, and images sent to our correspondents Infographics by Jaimee Lee Haddad