Israeli army says coordination between Hezbollah and Iran 'not that tight'

The Israeli military claimed on Thursday that its war on Iran had "shaken" the country's clerical leadership, adding that it was continuing to "deepen the damage."

Alongside strikes on Iran, Israel also continues to attack Lebanon, where its forces led a ground invasion into several southern border towns on Wednesday.

"Hezbollah is an arm of Iran. It serves the terror regime inside Iran," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said in a televised briefing on Thursday, but added that the coordination between the two "is not that tight."

"The goal of the operation is to inflict severe damage on the Iranian terror regime until it removes the existential threat... And we continue to deepen the damage to the regime," Defrin claimed. "It is important for me to say that it is already shaken. It was shaken by the first strike on Saturday morning, when the leadership was thwarted [killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei]. And every day we continue to destabilize it more and more, to deepen the damage to it until the existential threat is removed."