Israeli Airstrikes on Hezbollah, Ukraine Hits Russian Ammo

THE WAR NEWSLETTER — SEP 23, 2024

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Welcome to your daily international conflict briefing.

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Today’s updates:

1. 🇮🇱 Israeli intensifies campaign against Hezbollah

2. 🇺🇦 Ukraine hits Russian ammo stockpile

1 - ISRAEL

Israel launched an intensive air campaign against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, striking over 1,300 Hezbollah targets in a 24-hour period. The Israeli military reported hitting buildings, vehicles, and infrastructure housing rockets, missiles, launchers, and drones. Lebanon's health ministry claimed 356 people were killed, including 24 children, and 1,246 were injured. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Lebanese civilians to "get out of harm's way," stating Israel's fight is with Hezbollah, not Lebanon.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that "secondary explosions" from weapons stores were responsible for some of the casualties. Secondary explosions occur when an Israeli airstrike hits a building containing stockpiled Hezbollah weapons, which then explode. Hezbollah is known to stockpile rockets, missiles, and other weapons in civilian homes to keep Israel from striking them.

In the September 20 strike on Beirut, the IDF confirmed killing Ibrahim Aqil, head of Hezbollah's military operations, along with Ahmed Wahbi, head of the terror group's training unit, and 10 other senior Radwan Force (part of the Hezbollah organization) commanders. Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed that these leaders were meeting to plan a terror attack on Israel similar to Hamas's October 7 assault.

Read more on Telegraph or Times Of Israel

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2 - UKRAINE

Ukrainian forces successfully struck a Russian ammunition facility in Toropets on September 18 using drones.  The initial strike was followed by secondary explosions, which reportedly registered as a 2.8 magnitude earthquake in the region.  Residents from the region around the facility were also evacuated, and satellite images showed the fire had grown to 5 square kilometers.  Authorities later said the situation was under control, but urged residents not to post footage of area "in the interests of public safety."

The strike reportedly destroyed enough ammunition to affect Russian operations in the future, with an estimated 30,000 tons of munitions exploding, a calculated two to three month supply.

A second successful drone strike three days later on another facility 14 kilometers south of Toropets also destroyed an additional 2,000 tons of ammunition after secondary explosions were reported at the location of the strike.

Read more on Novaya Gazeta or ISW

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