Huge barrage launched in response to the assassination of the armed group’s top commander, as fears of all-out war reverberate.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah says it has launched more than 200 rockets and drones at Israeli military positions in response to an attack that killed a senior commander of the armed group.
A Hezbollah source confirmed Thursday’s attack to Al Jazeera – the second major attack in two days – launched in retaliation for the assassination of Muhammad Nimah Nasser in southern Lebanon a day earlier.
Nasser, also known as “Hajj Abu Nimah,” was the third high-ranking official killed in nearly nine months of cross-border fighting that broke out after Israel launched its war on Gaza. His death prompted Hezbollah to launch more than 100 rockets into Israel on Wednesday.
Thursday’s attack was one of the biggest yet along the Lebanon-Israel border, as tensions soared with the group sending explosive drones to several military bases in northern Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The Israeli military said its forces were “attacking launch posts in southern Lebanon” after “numerous projectiles and suspected aerial targets crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” most of which were intercepted.
He said “fires broke out in several areas in northern Israel” after the attacks.
Israeli media reported that a vehicle with Israeli troops was hit by a projectile. There were reports of two direct attacks on two buildings, one in Acre and the other north of the city. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said two women were taken to hospital in northern Israel with minor injuries.
Seventeen alerts were issued over 90 minutes in different parts of the northern region, from Nahariya in the west to the Golan in the east, according to the military.
Broader war fears grow
Increasing fighting and charged rhetoric between Hezbollah and Israeli authorities has US, European and Arab mediators scrambling to avoid a wider regional conflagration.
Hezbollah says it is attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian armed group Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people and taking around 250 others captive.
In response, Israel launched an open-ended attack on Gaza that killed more than 38,000 people — mostly children and women — forcibly displaced about two million others multiple times and devastated the long-besieged coastal enclave.
Now, as tensions with Hezbollah rise, Israeli officials say they could go to war in Lebanon if efforts for a diplomatic solution fail.
Estimates suggest that border clashes have killed at least 496 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also 95 civilians. Israeli authorities say at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed.
Rami Khouri, a political analyst at the American University of Beirut, said that although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to beat the drums of war with Hezbollah, his military is not prepared for a second front.
“Netanyahu, especially, keeps saying we are going to attack Lebanon. We will destroy Hezbollah. But they don’t have the capacity to do that while they are still fighting a war in Gaza,” Khouri told Al Jazeera.
He suggested that a ceasefire in Gaza is the best possible scenario for Israel. “Hezbollah has said many times: ‘We will stop attacking Israel if Israel stops attacking Gaza.’”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday that he is “very concerned about the escalating exchange of fire” between Hezbollah and Israel.
He warned of the potential risks for the region as a whole if it found itself in a “full-fledged conflict”.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
