Lebanon’s Hezbollah says launched rocket barrage at Israeli positions
Rockets leave trails of smoke as they are launched from southern Lebanon
Beirut – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it launched on Thursday “more than 60” rockets at Israeli military positions in retaliation for overnight air strikes on the country’s east.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily fire following the Palestinian group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, now in its eighth month.
Hezbollah fighters “launched a missile attack with more than 60 Katyusha rockets” on several Israeli military positions in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, the group said in a statement.
The strikes were “in response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks last night on the Bekaa region” in eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek area, the group added.
Earlier Thursday, Lebanese state-run media reported an overnight Israeli air raid on the Baalbek area, where Hezbollah holds sway, hours after the group launched an attack deep into Israeli territory.
“The outskirts of the eastern Lebanon mountain range, at midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday), was subjected to five enemy raids,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.
The Israeli strikes “slightly injured a citizen” and caused fires, the NNA added.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that one of the strikes “hit a Hezbollah military camp”.
An Israeli army spokesman told AFP: “I can confirm that an airstrike was indeed conducted deep in Lebanon against a terror target related to Hezbollah’s precision missile project”.
The area of Baalbek in the Bekaa valley is a Hezbollah bastion, bordering Syria.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it launched drones at a military base near the Israeli city of Tiberias, in one of its deepest attacks into the country since cross-border clashes began on October 8.
It came after Israel said it killed on Tuesday one of Hezbollah’s field commanders in southern Lebanon.
The group said Israeli fire had killed its member Hussein Makki, who was identified as a field commander by a source close to Hezbollah.
The cross-border fighting has killed at least 413 people in Lebanon, mostly militants but also including dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 14 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in areas on both sides of the border.