Hezbollah launches barrage of rockets at Israel after senior commander killed
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets in the direction of Israel Thursday in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander amid rising fears of a brand new escalation in preventing on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
In one of many largest assaults in latest months, the Iran-backed militia mentioned in an announcement that it had fired over 200 rockets at a number of Israeli army amenities. In a separate assertion late Wednesday, Hezbollah mentioned it had fired over 100 rockets at bases close to Israel’s northern border.
Each assaults got here after the group confirmed that Muhammad Na’ima Nasser, one its senior subject commanders, had been killed within the southern Lebanese metropolis of Tyre.
The Israeli army later confirmed that they “struck and eradicated” Nasser, who was also called Hajj Abu Na’ima, in an announcement Wednesday.
The assertion mentioned he was a commander with Hezbollah’s Aziz Unit, “chargeable for firing from southwestern Lebanon at Israeli territory.”
The Israel Protection Forces additionally accused Nasser of directing “numerous terror assaults” towards Israel, each throughout and earlier than the beginning of the battle with Hamas in Gaza. It didn’t say the place or how Nasser was killed.
After the primary wave of Hezbollah assaults on Wednesday, the IDF mentioned a number of the projectiles had been intercepted and a few fell within the space of Kiryat Shmona, a metropolis close to the Lebanese border, however the majority of the launches fell in open areas. It added that its forces struck a Hezbollah launcher that was used to fireside the barrages.
Magen David Adom, the Israeli counterpart of the American Purple Cross, mentioned there have been no casualties reported. It’s unclear if anybody was killed or injured within the second wave of strikes.
The day after Hamas-led terrorist assaults on Oct. 7, Hezbollah introduced its solidarity with the group — which can be backed by Iran — and started a near-daily barrage of missile and rocket assaults over Israel’s southern border.
The preventing has ratcheted up in latest weeks with Hezbollah utilizing more and more subtle weapons to fireside far deeper into Israel. After one other of its senior commanders, Taleb Abdallah, was killed final month, the group fired a big barrages of drones and rockets at Israel.
The IDF mentioned Wednesday Nasser and Abdallah “served as two of essentially the most vital Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.”
Israel has been firing again with better frequency, and its management has change into more and more bellicose, threatening to invade Lebanon and take Hezbollah head-on.
It has additionally evacuated about 60,000 individuals from greater than 40 northern communities. On the Lebanese facet, the preventing has displaced round 74,500 individuals, in keeping with the Worldwide Group for Migration.
The tit-for-tat assaults come as fears develop that the battle may escalate right into a wider confrontation on Israel’s northern border, because the battle in Gaza continues to rage on greater than eight months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assaults that noticed 1,200 individuals killed and resulted in round 250 taken hostage. Almost 38,000 have been killed in Gaza within the offensive that adopted, well being officers within the enclave have mentioned.
In the meantime, in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his safety cupboard on Thursday night to debate new Hamas positions on a cease-fire deal in Gaza, an Israeli official confirmed to NBC Information Thursday.
Israel acquired Hamas’ response on Wednesday to a proposal made public on the finish of Might by President Joe Biden that would come with the discharge of about 120 hostages remaining in Gaza along with a cease-fire.
In an announcement late Wednesday, Hamas mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, the pinnacle of its political bureau, spoke with mediators in Qatar, Egypt and Turkey about reaching a deal to finish the battle. “The motion dealt in a constructive spirit with the content material of the continuing deliberations,” it mentioned.
Each side have struggled to reach at a long-term settlement to finish the bloodshed as Netanyahu has vowed the battle would proceed till Hamas is totally obliterated.
Nonetheless, he mentioned final month the “intensive” section of Israel’s offensive in Gaza would finish quickly, and that will permit a shift in focus to the simmering battle on the nation’s northern border with Lebanon.
Hamas in the meantime, has mentioned it received’t cease preventing till there’s a everlasting cease-fire in place and Israel totally withdraws from Gaza.
