Heavy rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel continued on Thursday, both sides said, with the projectiles setting off air-raid sirens in northern Israel.
Hezbollah said it launched rocket and drone attacks on several Israeli army bases and positions, two days after an Israeli strike killed one of its senior commanders, Taleb Abdallah.
A Hezbollah source told DPA that the dozens of rockets were fired simultaneously at several military barracks and described the attack as a “major operation.”
Speaking at Taleb’s funeral ceremony on Wednesday, senior Hezbollah official Hashem Saffieddine said: “Our response after Abdallah’s martyrdom is that we will increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality of our operations and have him waiting for us in the field. .”
In retaliation, Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes and shelled areas in the western and central sector of southern Lebanon on Thursday.
“Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel in recent hours, approximately 40 projectiles were launched towards the Galilee area and the Golan Heights,” the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on its Telegram channel. It said numerous launches were successfully intercepted, but “a number of hits” caused fires in the area.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia fired about 200 rockets into Israel, raising concerns of a dangerous escalation of the conflict.
Israeli media reported on Thursday that a house in Kibbutz Yiron in the border area was directly hit. Rocket fragments fell in the city of Safed in northern Israel and in Katzrin in the occupied Golan Heights, where paramedics said two people were injured by rocket fragments.
Several people were injured by falling while encountering shelters, and there were also several shock injuries.
According to Israeli media reports, several fires broke out along the border in Israeli territory. The region is currently experiencing particularly warm and dry weather, which allows fires to spread easily.
The IDF has fired incendiary projectiles from what appears to be a medieval catapult or trebuchet across the border with Lebanon, Israeli media reported. The aim was apparently to burn dense bushes in the border area so that enemy fighters could not hide there, Kan public broadcaster reported on Thursday.
A video circulating on social media showed Israeli soldiers alongside the unusual unit throwing a fireball over a high wall.
Kan said, citing the IDF, that the use of the weapon was only a “local initiative” and that it is not widely used by the military.
Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah have been fighting each other since the start of the war in Gaza and the fighting has become increasingly intense. On both sides of the border, the attacks repeatedly led to fires that spread quickly due to the hot, dry weather there.
