The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed Tuesday that its soldiers had recovered a map prepared by Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of a plan called “Conquer the Galilee,” in which it hoped to execute an October 7-style raid on Israel.
The revelation was made in a press briefing by IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, who spoke less than 24 hours after Israel officially began a ground invasion of Lebanon to dislodge Hezbollah from the border.
Hagari declassified a trove of intelligence and confirmed what Breitbart News had reported since April — that IDF soldiers had been conducting limited missions inside Lebanon. Hagari said that the IDF had been locating Hezbollah tunnels and weapons caches and destroying them. Many were located in civilian areas, with entrances inside civilian homes.
Hezbollah began attacking Israel on October 8, a day after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza and murdered 1,200 people, taking over 250 hostages (97 of whom remain in Gaza today, with 33 reported to be confirmed dead).
Israel feared that Hezbollah might invade as well, and rushed some 100,000 troops to the northern border. (Breitbart News reported from inside the “red zone” in November, as the IDF prepared near the border for a possible attack.)
As Hezbollah continued to fire at Israeli civilian communities, Israel evacuated 60,000 residents from their homes.
Hagari said:
Hezbollah has openly declared that it plans to carry out its own October the 7th massacre on Israel’s northern border, on an even larger scale. They call this plan, “Conquer the Galilee”. For years, Hezbollah has been planning to do in northern Israel what Hamas did in southern Israel on October 7th: invade Israel, infiltrate civilian communities and massacre innocent civilians.
To make sure that Hezbollah can never carry out such an attack and in order to enable all 60,000 Israelis to safely return back to their homes in northern Israel, the IDF is taking action. Hezbollah planned to launch their October 7th attack from villages across southern Lebanon where they have been building up their arms; capabilities; and forces for the last two decades. Hezbollah also dug tunnels under homes in these villages close to the border with Israel.
Hagari also revealed videos of IDF infiltrations into Lebanon, showing Israeli soldiers discovering tunnels and weapons, and showing tunnels and other Hezbollah infrastructure being destroyed in controlled explosions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
