BEIRUT– The Lebanese group Hezbollah says it has fired more than 200 rockets at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for an attack that killed one of its top commanders.
The attack by the Iran-backed militant group on Thursday was one of the largest in the months-long conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border, with tensions simmering in recent weeks.
The Israeli military said that “numerous projectiles and suspicious aerial targets” had entered its territory from Lebanon, many of which it said were intercepted. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
On Wednesday he acknowledged that he had killed Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who headed one of Hezbollah’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon, a day earlier.
Hours later, Hezbollah launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and Falaq rockets with heavy warheads toward northern Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. It launched more rockets on Thursday and said it had also sent explosive drones to several bases.
The United States and France continue to fight to prevent the skirmishes from turning into an all-out war, which they fear could spread to the entire region.
The relatively low-level conflict broke out shortly after the outbreak of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it is attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-allied group that started the war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. In northern Israel, 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have died. In Lebanon, more than 450 people have died, mostly combatants but also dozens of civilians.
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