Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired successive barrages of rockets at northern Israel on Wednesday, after an Israeli air strike killed a senior commander in south Lebanon yesterday.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border hearth with the Israeli military since its Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, triggering warfare in Gaza.
The exchanges have intensified in latest weeks, as Hezbollah has stepped up its use of drones to assault Israeli navy positions, whereas Israel has hit again with focused strikes in opposition to the militants.
Hezbollah mentioned it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at three bases and a barracks in northern Israel.
The Iran-backed militant group mentioned it additionally struck a “navy manufacturing unit” with guided missiles “in response to the assassination carried out by the Zionist enemy”.
The Israeli military mentioned greater than 150 “projectiles” had been fired from Lebanon in three successive barrages.
“A short time in the past, roughly 90 projectiles had been recognized crossing from Lebanon,” it mentioned, including that a number of had been intercepted however others struck inside Israel sparking fires in elements of the north.
The preliminary barrage was adopted by a second of round 70 projectiles and a 3rd of round 10, the navy added.
– ‘Knight of the resistance’ –
The military mentioned that in response it struck a rocket launcher in south Lebanon and “4 terrorist infrastructure websites… from which projectiles had been fired at northern Israel”.
As temperatures have soared in latest days, the exchanges of fireplace have sparked a number of brush fires on either side of the border.
“Israel Hearth and Rescue Providers are at present working to extinguish the fires that broke out because of the launches,” the navy mentioned.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service mentioned there have been no rapid experiences of any casualties.
The most recent barrages from Lebanon got here after an Israeli air strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday.
The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that it had “eradicated” Taleb Sami Abdallah in a strike on a Hezbollah command centre in southern Lebanon.
In a press release it referred to as Abdallah “one in every of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon” and mentioned he had “deliberate, superior, and carried out numerous terror assaults in opposition to Israeli civilians”.
Abdallah was killed together with three Hezbollah comrades in an Israeli strike on Jouaiyya, 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the border, a supply near the group advised AFP.
A Lebanese navy supply mentioned the commander was “a very powerful in Hezbollah to be killed to this point because the begin of the warfare”.
The group referred to as on its supporters to attend Abdallah’s funeral within the southern suburbs of Beirut, describing him as “one of many knights of the resistance”.
– ”Harsh blow’ –
Professional-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar described the strike that killed Abdallah as “a harsh blow” to the group.
However Britain-based Center East specialist Amal Saad performed down the prospect of wider escalation.
“I do not assume that the dying of this highest-ranking commander goes to vary any of Hezbollah’s calculations,” she mentioned, explaining that civilian casualties had been “purple strains” for the group relatively than the focusing on of commanders or fighters.
“We witnessed an escalation in high quality and amount of (Hezbollah) assaults with the intention to put strain on Israel and the US within the ceasefire talks and enhance Hamas’s bargaining place,” Saad mentioned.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah mentioned it fired some 50 rockets at Israeli positions within the annexed Golan Heights.
Greater than eight months of cross-border violence has killed not less than 468 individuals in Lebanon, most of them fighters but additionally together with 89 civilians, in accordance with an AFP tally.
Israeli authorities say not less than 15 Israeli troopers and 11 civilians have been killed.
Tens of 1000’s of individuals have been displaced on either side of the border because the violence erupted the day after the Hamas assault on southern Israel.
The October 7 assault resulted within the deaths of 1,194 individuals in Israel, largely civilians, in accordance with an AFP tally primarily based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in opposition to Hamas has killed not less than 37,164 individuals in Gaza, additionally largely civilians, in accordance with the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry.
burs-jd-aya-csp/kir
