Middle East

Hizbullah fires 200 rockets at Israel to avenge killing of commander

Israeli military retaliates with strikes in Lebanon as tension between the two sides escalates sharply

A fire blazes following an attack from the Lebanese Hizbullah group in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Photograph: Gil Eliyahu/AP

James Shotter in Jerusalem and Raya Jalabi in Beirut
Thu Jul 4 2024 - 19:46

Hizbullah said it had fired more than 200 rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed one of its senior commanders, as tensions between the two sides escalated sharply on Thursday.

The barrage, one of the largest launched by the Lebanese militant group since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict last October, came amid fears that long-simmering hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah, one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state actors, could boil over into a full-blown war.

Hizbullah said its rockets had targeted several military bases in Israel in response to Israel’s killing on Wednesday of Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who led one of the militant group’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.

The Iran-backed group had also launched an initial salvo of rockets into northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights in the immediate aftermath of Nasser’s killing.

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The Israeli military said on Thursday that “approximately 200 projectiles” and more than 20 drones had been launched at Israel and that it had responded with strikes on military structures in Ramyeh and Houla in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said that the strike in Houla had killed at least one person. Israel’s military said that one soldier had been killed in Hizbullah’s barrage.

Hizbullah and Israeli forces have been trading near-daily fire since the eruption of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7th, with Hizbullah first firing rockets the following day in support of Hamas.

Despite the intensifying exchanges, which have displaced tens of thousands of people and caused casualties in Lebanon and Israel, the two sides have so far not been drawn into a full-blown war. The US has been leading a diplomatic push for them to de-escalate the situation.

However, Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are prepared to take military action in the absence of a diplomatic resolution, and the Israel Defense Forces said two weeks ago that it had approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon”.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Wednesday that his country would “reach a state of full readiness to take any action required in Lebanon, or to reach an arrangement from a position of strength”.

He added: “We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us, we will know how to fight.”

Hizbullah has lost more than 320 fighters since the start of hostilities last October, according to a Financial Times tally. They include a few dozen mid- to high-ranking officers, said a source last month familiar with the group’s operations.

More than 90 Lebanese civilians have also been killed, according to Financial Times calculations, while in northern Israel, at least 18 soldiers and 11 civilians have died in cross-border fire.

Hizbullah officials have repeatedly said they were not seeking an all-out war with Israel. But they have insisted they will not stop firing until there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024

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