The militant Hezbollah group fired more than 50 rockets at military posts in northern Israel on Thursday, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a home in southern Lebanon killed five of the group’s senior fighters.
Quick Read
- Hezbollah fired over 50 rockets at Israeli military posts in northern Israel, intensifying attacks during the Israel-Hamas war.
- This bombardment is one of the most intense since Hezbollah began targeting Israel’s north.
- Hezbollah claims its intensified actions on the Israel-Lebanon border aim to relieve pressure on Gaza, which faces a severe Israeli offensive.
- The Israel-Hamas war, triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, has resulted in over 13,300 Palestinian deaths and significant destruction in Gaza.
- A proposed four-day Gaza cease-fire and a prisoner exchange faced obstacles.
- Hezbollah’s attacks included 48 Katyusha rockets targeting an Israeli army base near Beit Zeitem.
- Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed five senior Hezbollah fighters, including the son of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc head.
- Total Hezbollah fatalities in seven weeks of conflict reached at least 83.
- Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian discussed efforts to stop Israeli aggression and the Lebanon-Israel border situation.
- Amirabdollahian expressed concerns about the potential escalation of the Israel-Hamas war.
- Iran-backed Iraqi factions, like Kataib Hezbollah, have attacked bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
- The U.S. military reported that the USS Thomas Hudner downed drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
The Associated Press has the story:
Hezbollah fires rockets at N. Israel after an airstrike kills 5 of the group’s senior fighters
Newslooks- BEIRUT (AP)
The militant Hezbollah group fired more than 50 rockets at military posts in northern Israel on Thursday, a day after an Israeli airstrike on a home in southern Lebanon killed five of the group’s senior fighters.
The waves of rockets sent over the border represented one of the most intense bombardments since Hezbollah started attacking Israeli posts in the country’s north at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hezbollah has said that by heating up its actions on the Israel-Lebanon border, it is easing pressure on the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s crushing aerial, ground and naval offensive has left more than 13,300 Palestinians dead and caused wide destruction in the sealed-off enclave.
The war was triggered by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that left about 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and resulted in about 240 hostages getting taken to Gaza.
An agreement for a four-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of dozens of hostages held by the militants and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, was set to take place Thursday but appeared to have hit a last-minute snag.
Hezbollah said in a series of statements released Thursday that the volleys it fired toward Israeli posts included 48 Katyusha rockets that were directed at an Israeli army base in Beit Zeitem, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the border.
The group said its fighters also struck tanks and locations where Israeli troops were taking positions.
The intense fire followed an Israeli airstrike on a house in Beit Yahoun, a village in southern Lebanon, that killed the five senior fighters, including Abbas Raad, the son of the head of Hezbollah’s 13-member parliamentary bloc in Lebanon, Mohammed Raad.
The deaths bring the number of Hezbollah fighters who have been killed in seven weeks of fighting to at least 83.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met in Beirut in Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian. They discussed the ongoing war in Gaza and efforts to “stop the Israeli aggression,” as well as the situation at the tense Lebanon-Israel border, according to a statement released by Hezbollah.
Amirabdollahian warned in comments to journalists upon his arrival in Lebanon Wednesday that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war could “spiral out of control” if a truce does not last.
Iran-backed factions in Iraq, including the militant group Kataib Hezbollah, have carried out more than 60 and rocket or suicide drone attacks at bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. Kataib Hezbollah is allied with Lebanon’s Hezbollah but the groups have different leaders.
The U.S. military said Thursday that one of its warships in the Red Sea shot down bomb-carrying drones launched from territory controlled by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
The American military’s Central Command said the USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, shot down the drones early Thursday morning. “The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury,” Central Command said.
