Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday that Israel's recent actions against Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Beirut could be signaling an imminent military ground operation into Lebanon.
Israel was behind attacks earlier this week on Hezbollah operatives by booby-trapping pagers and walkie-talkies to explode, killing dozens and injuring thousands. Earlier Friday,
Israel Defense Forces reportedly killed Hezbollah's top military commander, Ibrahim Aqil, and at least 10 other senior commanders in an airstrike in Beirut. Aqil had a $7 million bounty on his head by U.S. authorities for his role in the 1983 bombings of a U.S. Marine barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
Friday's attack marked the second time in less than two months that Israel targeted a leading Hezbollah military commander in Beirut. In July, an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, whom Aqil replaced as the group's top military commander.
"The strike was a precise strike," Holt told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" and guest host John Bachman. "It was in the Dahiya district of Beirut that is the enclave that is all Hezbollah. That's where Hezbollah lives. And they got their target [Aqil] going into a very important meeting down in a bunker, time sensitive, high-value target.
"They took that shot. Now, this is the gentleman who replaced the last terrorist killed, Fuad Shukr, about three or four weeks ago, and so what they're doing is they're effectively shaping everything just the way they want it before they escalate this war greatly. And with what we see the Israeli Air Force doing, in addition to the electronic strikes, I think it's imminent that we're going to see Israeli tanks roll very soon. In fact, the 36th and the 98th Division are in place to do just that."
Hezbollah has been relentlessly lobbing rockets and missiles into northern Israel since the Jewish state's military response in the Gaza Strip following Iranian-backed Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
The IDF earlier this week redeployed the 98th Division from fighting Hamas in Gaza to the country's northern front to join the 36th Division, Jewish News Syndicate reported Wednesday.
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