Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari- September 24, 2024

Good evening,
In today’s strike in the heart of Dahieh in Beirut, we eliminated Ibrahim Muhammad Qabisi, the Head of Hezbollah’s Missile and Rocket Unit. Israeli Air Force fighter jets accurately struck a level in a building where he was with other commanders from Hezbollah’s Missile Unit. At least two of them were eliminated, and we are still assessing the results of the strike.
Qabisi was a key figure in activating missiles, predominantly precision-guided missiles. He was responsible for a series of attacks on Israeli territory. In recent days, he was responsible for the rocket fire toward Haifa, including this morning. We continue to degrade Hezbollah’s capabilities, also focusing on eliminating the commanders who operate them.

Today, approximately 300 rockets were fired toward the Israeli home front, and six civilians and soldiers were injured, most of them lightly. I want to again emphasize the responsible behavior of the citizens of Israel, particularly the residents of the north. This behavior saves lives and prevents enemy achievements. Continue to follow the Home Front Command’s instructions and act responsibly. Hezbollah wanted to fire more today, but we are intercepting, striking, and disrupting their attacks.

In the past 24 hours, we continue to examine the significant strikes we carried out yesterday, refining our future strikes moving forward. I will not elaborate this evening on the data regarding the degradation of Hezbollah's capabilities. We are in possession of this [data], studying it, and deepening them. I will not go into detail in order not to endanger our intelligence or provide the enemy with a clearer picture. We still have work to do, and although the achievement is significant, we must remember one thing – Hezbollah still possesses various different capabilities. Our role is to deal with each one of them, but first and foremost, we are focusing on their strategic capabilities, which pose the greatest risk to the Israeli home front.

Throughout the day, we continued to strike in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley. Hezbollah has turned these areas into a combat zone. In the videos here, you can see additional strikes on three houses where weapons were stored. It is clear that missiles are exploding from the houses, missiles that are launched in every direction. Here, for example, you see a building where a truck carrying a medium-range rocket launcher was hidden. Hezbollah hides many such trucks inside homes, homes where Lebanese families live, to transport weapons between locations. With precise intelligence, we struck the building, and destroyed the launcher and rockets.
We will continue to release and distribute such videos in various languages to the entire world, to show what Hezbollah has been doing over the past twenty years, in a vast project where they have turned thousands of civilian homes in southern Lebanon and not only in southern Lebanon, into terror bases, turning southern Lebanon into a combat zone. They are using the civilian population as human shields, and by doing so endangering them and continuing to do so.

Alongside the operations in the north, two divisions are currently operating in Gaza, continuing to dismantle Hamas around the clock. In today’s situational assessments with the Defense Minister, the Chief of the General Staff, and MG Nitzan Alon, it was emphasized that the return of the hostages is a central objective, and the defense establishment is committed to this goal, working on all efforts to achieve it.

We set important goals at the beginning of the war, very important goals, goals concerning all arenas, and we will continue to act with full force until they are achieved.