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(SeaPRwire) –   Hezbollah—an Iran-backed terrorist organization—faced a major strike on its command network across Lebanon on April 8, which Israeli officials called one of the war’s most destructive blows.

Almost at the same time, blasts rocked Beirut, the Beqaa Valley, and southern Lebanon as around 50 Israeli planes hit over 100 Hezbollah sites.

Per the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the targets weren’t rocket launchers or arms depots; instead, they were the group’s core operational hubs: command rooms, intelligence headquarters, and offices where Hezbollah leaders planned the next phase of the conflict.

This strike signaled a new phase in the Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2 when Hezbollah joined the conflict to support Iran—one day after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Since that time, Hezbollah has launched rockets, drones, and anti-tank missiles into northern Israel, and Israel has retaliated with expanding airstrikes and a ground campaign in southern Lebanon.

“Within only a minute, the IDF eliminated 250 Hezbollah terrorists in three areas simultaneously,” the Israeli military stated, noting that the assessment is still in progress.

IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told Digital that the strike was the product of several weeks of intelligence gathering.

Israeli intelligence services monitored Hezbollah operatives as they traveled between apartments, offices, and safe houses throughout Lebanon.

“The timing had to do with the preparations,” Shoshani explained. “There was weeks of amazing intelligence.”

When asked if the operation demonstrated Israel still has significant infiltration within Hezbollah after months of war, Shoshani referenced the attack’s scope.

“The fact that we were able to find 250 terrorists hiding in different locations in Lebanon, many of them in locations for recent weeks, eliminating them in real time, I think the capabilities speak for themselves,” he remarked.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun criticized Wednesday’s strikes.

“The scale of the killing and destruction in Lebanon today is nothing short of horrific,” stated Volker Türk, the United Nations Human Rights Chief. “Such carnage, within hours of agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran, defies belief.”

“This response will continue until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people ceases,” Hezbollah declared in a statement.

The strike was compared to the September 2024 “beeper operation,” during which thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members detonated nearly simultaneously across Lebanon and Syria—an operation widely linked to Israel.

Per Lebanese authorities, the blasts killed over 40 people and injured around 4,000, while Hezbollah later admitted that some 1,500 fighters were put out of commission. The operation shattered Hezbollah’s communication network and became Israel’s benchmark for a strike that fundamentally altered the battlefield.

“The beeper had more … effective injuries. That was the purpose of it,” Shoshani noted. “But both targeted hundreds of terrorists and within 60 seconds.”

Similar to the beeper operation, Shoshani said the April 8 strike aimed not only to kill operatives but also to throw Hezbollah into disarray.

“It was important to the aspect of creating disarray, of breaking their chain of command, breaking their command and patrol capabilities and kind of tilting the organization out of balance,” he explained.

A former Israeli intelligence official, speaking anonymously, stated that while the strike might not have matched the beeper operation’s impact, it seemed to target an unusually wide range of Hezbollah’s mid-level ranks.

Hezbollah is still reeling from the blow, the former official said, even though this hasn’t yet led to a drop in its rocket fire.

However, he warned against evaluating the operation solely based on the number of people killed.

The true measure, he said, is whether the strike changes the war’s trajectory and leaves Hezbollah less able to operate.

The IDF reported that many of those killed belonged to Hezbollah’s Radwan Force—its most capable and best-trained combat unit—as well as its intelligence apparatus, missile units, and aerial Unit 127.

The Israeli military noted that most of the targets were embedded within civilian areas.

“Most of the infrastructure that was struck was located within the heart of the civilian population,” the IDF stated.

Shoshani explained that Israel issued evacuation warnings to civilians before the strikes, but Hezbollah relocated its operatives to new civilian locations.

“When we gave the warnings for areas, civilians moved out, then Hezbollah saw that they moved out and started hiding behind civilians in new locations,” he said.

Despite the blow, Israeli officials say Hezbollah remains a major threat. Shoshani noted that the group— which had between 150,000 and 200,000 rockets and missiles before the war—still has the ability to fire into Israel.

“They still are a real threat for our civilians,” he said.

The strike occurred as Israel and Lebanon launched their first direct talks in over three decades at the U.S. State Department in Washington.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has signaled willingness to discuss normalization and the eventual disarmament of Hezbollah, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there will be no ceasefire until Hezbollah is dismantled and pushed back from the border.

Within hours of the diplomatic opening, Israeli warplanes again struck Lebanon and Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel.

Reuters contributed to this report.