An Indian Air Force helicopter which was air-dropping relief material in flood-hit Bihar has made a forced landing. There were four IAF personnel, including two officers, aboard the chopper and all of them have been rescued.

The helicopter made the forced landing in Naya Gaon of Muzaffarpur’s Aurai division on Wednesday afternoon and had taken off from Darbhanga Air Force Base. After it landed, a portion of the chopper was submerged in floodwaters.

The Principal Secretary of the disaster management department, Pratyaya Amrit, said a major accident was averted because of the pilot’s presence of mind. He said the engine failed and the pilot ensured that the helicopter landed in shallow water with no people around.

The personnel have been taken to a hospital, said Mr Amrit, adding that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) began rescue operations as soon as the crash was reported. The initial rescue was done by residents of the area.

The helicopter was an Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH)-Dhruv, which are used by the Indian Air Force, Army and the Navy. The fleets of these helicopters were recently grounded twice because of technical concerns over certain components.

Earlier on Wednesday, two pilots and an engineer died after a helicopter crashed in Pune. The chopper, which belonged to Delhi-based firm Heritage Aviation, was headed to Mumbai and police said dense fog may have led to the crash but the actual cause is still being established. 

Hezbollah is planning to replicate its own “October 7-style” attack on Israel to capture the northern Galilee region, the Israeli Defence Forces have claimed as they began ground incursions into the Hezbollah stronghold on Monday. The claims of ground invasion by Israel have been denied by Hezbollah though the Lebanese government has termed it “one of the most dangerous phases of its history”.

The October 7 attacks by the Palestinian Hamas group sparked the deadly Middle East crisis that has expanded to the Hezbollah-ruled Lebanon. Israel, which is fighting Hezbollah on its north and Hamas on its south, claims the Lebanese group was using border villages to launch a fresh assault, dubbed the ‘Conquer the Galilee’ operation.

‘Conquer The Galilee’

The region of Galilee lies north of Israel, known for the lake Sea of Galilee where Jesus Christ is believed to have walked on water. It’s a mountainous and fertile region that extends from the coastal plains to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel claims Hezbollah’s rocket attacks in this northern region have forced about 60,000 Israelis out of their homes, whom they now want to rehabilitate.

Hezbollah has openly declared it plans to carry out an October 7-style massacre on an even larger scale on Israel’s northern border, said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. To facilitate their plan, they have been digging tunnels under the homes in border villages and stocking arms, he said while de-classifying Israeli operations into Lebanon.

The operations saw Israeli forces enter Hezbollah compounds in dozens of locations and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure. The raids exposed Hezbollah’s hidden weapons cache while over 700 Hezbollah terror assets were dismantled, said the spokesperson.

Here are three such operations carried out by Israeli operations in

Meiss El Jabal

The Lebanese village of Meiss El Jabal is just a few hundred meters from Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli city. Israel claims over 20,000 residents had to flee this city due to Hezbollah attacks, so did Lebanese residents due to their “terrorist activities”.

Hezbollah operatives dug underground infrastructure under a house in the village to store weapons, said Rear Admiral Hagari said Israeli troops. They had planned this to be their preparation area before they invade Israeli territory, he added.

In the basement of the house, an elevated platform was built to hide the shaft that led to an underground tunnel. The Israeli spokesperson said the tunnel was 150 metres long and excavated in stone, and they dismantled it ground and aerial strikes.

Kfarkela

Much like Meiss El Jabal, Kfarkela is another border village only a few hundred meters from Israel’s Metula. In Kfarkela, Israeli troops conducted a targeted raid on this house where a tunnel was exposed under the bed in a children’s room.

“The soldiers went inside the tunnel shaft and revealed a 100-meter-long underground tunnel excavated in stone. The troops scanned the tunnel and found weapons stored in barrels. In one of the rooms, they exposed a weapons storage facility intended to be used by Hezbollah on the day of the planned invasion,” said Rear Admiral Hagari.

Nurit

Nurit lies between the Israeli border and the Lebanese village of Ayt Al Shaab. Israelis targeted what they claimed were Hezbollah targets in this village, including military outposts and rocket launchers. Here, the IDF located a “Hezbollah combat compound” that included combat trenches, both above and below the ground. “This network of trenches connects to an underground tunnel which included a weapons storage facility, a command, and control center, and preparation and living spaces for Hezbollah terrorists,” said Hagari.

The spokesperson said Israeli soldiers raided combat trenches at the top of a mountain and found an access point to underground tunnel routes – towards the Lebanese village of Ayt Al Shaab. In the tunnel, the sounds found a large number of weapons, Israel claimed.

Hagari said they also found a map in a Hezbollah compound that the group planned to give to its operatives before their ‘Conquer the Galilee’ invasion. The map marked Israeli communities, IDF posts, access roads and targets for attack.