Highlights:
Throughout August 2024, Hezbollah and other organizations carried out 281 attacks on the northern border (compared with 259 in July).
The period from the middle of the month until August 25, the day the IDF launched its pre-emptive offensive, is characterized by great intensity. In the last week of August, there was a decline in the use of high-trajectory fire and at the same time increased use of UAVs and drones.
High-trajectory fire is still Hezbollah’s main weapon. On a monthly basis, there has been an increase in its use (176 incidents compared to 137 in July 2024). UAVs and drones also increased monthly (62 incidents in August compared with 56 in July).
In August 2024, 51 operatives from various organizations, most of them Hezbollah, were killed, a significant increase compared to previous months.
Since the beginning of the war, there have been 2,840 attacks against Israel on the northern border. Almost half (48.5%) are against civilian targets. One of the most prominent civilian targets in Hezbollah’s attacks is the city of Kiryat Shmona, where 124 direct rocket attacks have been carried out since the beginning of the war, of which more than 370 Grad, Burkan, and Falaq rockets have been identified among them.
Detail:
During August 2024, Hezbollah and other organizations carried out 281 attacks on the northern border.
The monthly average stands at 9 attacks per day, compared to 259 attacks carried out in July 2024, which averaged 8.3 attacks per day. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the vast majority of the attacks.
This month, Hezbollah attacks on the northern border killed three Israelis and injured 30 others.
Towards the middle of the month, there were intense days in Hezbollah’s attacks against Israel, which lasted until August 25, when the IDF launched its preemptive attack to thwart Hezbollah’s response to the elimination of Fouad Shakar, head of Hezbollah’s strategic division. Subsequently, there was a decline in Hezbollah attacks. The intensity of Hezbollah’s attacks coincided with the IDF’s intensive activity to eliminate operatives, and may also have been aimed at exhausting and overloading the Israeli defense systems in preparation for the response attack planned by Hezbollah that was disrupted by the IDF.
Over the previous month, we established that Hezbollah had started using the phrase ” appropriate weapons” to refer to different categories of weapons. Until August 2024, when Hezbollah indicated that it had used the term ” appropriate weapons,” it referred to anti-tank missiles, which we verified by cross-checking various sources. This month, however, it was particularly prominent that when Hezbollah indicated that it had used “appropriate weapons,” it also included artillery fire, high-trajectory fire, anti-tank missiles, UAVs and drones.
Accordingly, and in order to make the data more precise, we added a column (shown in the below graph) “Undisclosed”, which includes attacks in which we were unable to verify the type of weapons fired into Israel. This is the reason for the allegedly low number of anti-tank missile incidents this month (8), which includes only those incidents that we were able to verify with certainty that anti-tank missiles were used.
Note that although it was noted that 281 attacks were carried out against Israel in August 2024, some of the attacks combined various weapons. Therefore, the number of weapons is higher than the total number of attacks.
August 2024, as in previous months, witnessed Hezbollah’s peak use of high-trajectory firing, with a notable surge in the number of high-trajectory shooting events (176)in comparison to July 2024 (137).
The number of UAV and drone incidents increased this month to 62 compared to July 2024, when there were 56 UAV incidents, in line with the overall increase in the number of attacks in August 2024 (281) compared to July 2024 (259). In addition, this month Hezbollah used surface-to-air missiles and sniper fire.
Analysis of weapon usage patterns in the final week of August, following the IDF’s preemptive strike on August 25, revealed a decrease in the employment of high-trajectory fire and a simultaneous rise in the use of UAVs and drones. After a two-day hiatus (August 26-27), Hezbollah resumed high-trajectory fire at Israel, but at a lower intensity than during the rest of the month.
Since the beginning of the war, there have been 2,840 attacks against Israel on the northern border. Almost half (48.5%) against civilian targets. The total number of civilian targets attacked included direct Hezbollah fire at civilian targets and indirect fire. In other words, incidents in which Hezbollah claims to fire at military targets, but uses inaccurate statistical weapons and deliberately strikes civilian targets as well.
An example from this month is that as part of Hezbollah’s response attack on August 25, it launched more than 200 Grad rockets and about 20 suicide UAVs across northern Israel. According to Hezbollah, the targets were 11 bases throughout the north. In practice, civilian communities and targets throughout northern Israel, such as a chicken coop and a main road, were struck.
The city of Kiryat Shmona has been a significant civilian target in Hezbollah’s strikes. Thus far in the conflict, there have been 124 direct rocket attacks, with over 370 Grad, Burkan, and Falaq rockets confirmed to have been used in these barrages. Instances of direct firing do not encompass rockets launched at neighboring communities such as Manara and Margaliot, which extend into Kiryat Shmona and thus activate defensive warnings across the city.
Thus far in the conflict, one civilian was killed and a further 28 others have sustained injuries in attacks on the city of Kiryat Shmona. Furthermore, industrial facilities, educational institutions, residential properties, cemeteries, and commercial complexes suffered significant property loss.
Since the beginning of the war, 432 Hezbollah operatives, 22 Amal movement operatives, 14 al-Jama’ah al-Islamiyya operatives, 14 Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, 9 Hamas operatives, one Lebanese resistance battalion operative and one Fatah operative have been killed in IDF airstrikes.
It is evident that during the month of August, the IDF stepped up its activity against anyone directly involved in military terrorist activity against Israel. In August 2024, 51 operatives from various organizations, most of them Hezbollah, were killed, a significant increase compared to previous months. In one week (August 19-26), 17 operatives from various organizations were eliminated.