Hezbollah has intensified its attacks on Israel with a series of rocket and artillery strikes following the recent killing of its military commander in Beirut. The escalation comes after a period of relative calm along the border.
On Friday, Hezbollah launched a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli warplane flying in Lebanese airspace, forcing it to retreat. The group also targeted Israeli military positions in northern Israel with two artillery attacks and two rocket strikes. The Israeli military responded by intercepting an aerial target that originated from Lebanon and was headed towards the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire struck several villages in southern Lebanon. This escalation follows an earlier Israeli airstrike that killed at least five Syrian migrant workers in the same region, as reported by Lebanese medics. The Israeli military also reported hitting two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a Thursday address, stated that he had initially called for restraint along the border out of respect for the victims of the Israeli strike on Beirut’s Dahiyeh suburb, which resulted in the deaths of military commander Fuad Shukr, an Iranian military adviser, and five civilians. Nasrallah had indicated that while Hezbollah would retaliate, it would first evaluate the appropriate response before resuming its usual operations against Israel.
The recent violence marks a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which has seen intermittent exchanges of fire over the past 10 months, often in parallel with the Gaza war. The recent series of strikes has raised concerns about the potential for the conflict to widen into a broader regional war.
Sources By Agencies
