With war raging in the Middle East, we want to bring you as many trusted voices on the news as we can. One such voice is the Israeli journalist Amit Segal. He writes a daily newsletter, It’s Noon in Israel, which we’re pleased to publish in The Free Press.
If you Google “the most dangerous job in the world,” prevailing opinion believes it to be logging. With a fatality rate of over 100 per 100,000 workers, it’s a tough gig, sure, but if we’re talking pure survival rates, an enemy of Israel would be better off picking up an axe. If Google factored in Israel’s efforts against Hezbollah in the last few years, the now-former commander of the terror group’s Radwan Force might have thought twice before taking a job that got his colleagues explosively vacated in 2024.
Regardless, Israel delivered a kinetic reality check last night with a precision strike in the majority-Shi’ite Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. While the Radwan commander was the primary target, his deputy and other senior officials were also in the crosshairs; reports suggest the deputy survived, but the message was sent regardless. This marks a serious escalation, as it is Israel’s first strike on the Lebanese capital since the mid-April ceasefire began.
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The agreement, forged with the intent of affording the U.S. room to maneuver in negotiations with Iran, is still technically in place. While it granted Washington the quiet it was craving, it has proven less satisfying for Jerusalem. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were hoping for a return to the “pre-Operation Roaring Lion” status quo with Hezbollah—which one might call an air strike equivalent of “I get to punch you, and you don’t get to punch me back.” But the circumstances have changed. The shadow of Donald Trump looming over Israel has emboldened the terror group; knowing the U.S. president is holding Israel back, Hezbollah has been poking at the north and throwing jabs at Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon.
The IDF appears to have accepted this possibility, assuming Hezbollah didn’t have the capacity to inflict significant damage. That was until they introduced their deadly new weapon: fiber-optic, first-person-view drones.
