The Israeli military said the airstrikes had “eliminated” Hezbollah operatives. (Image)
Beirut:
Hezbollah said it had fired “dozens” of rockets into northern Israel on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly attack in southern Lebanon, a day after the group’s leader gave a fiery speech.
Israel and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese group allied with Hamas, have been engaged in near-daily cross-border gun battles since the Palestinian group attacked Israel on October 7, starting the war in the Gaza Strip.
Fears of a regional war rose after Hezbollah’s supreme leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Wednesday that “no part” of Israel would be spared in the event of all-out war with the group, and threatened the nearby island nation of Cyprus if it opens its airport to Israel.
Hezbollah said on Thursday that its fighters had targeted an Israeli barracks with “dozens of Katyusha rockets” “in retaliation for an assassination carried out by Israel’s enemies in the village of Deir Kifa.”
Lebanon’s national news agency (NNA) reported that an “enemy drone” struck a vehicle in the Deir Kifa area of southern Lebanon, killing one person.
Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed. A source close to the group, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the fighter was killed in the Deir el-Fa attack.
The Israeli military said the airstrikes “eliminated” a Hezbollah operative in the Deir Kifa area, saying he was “responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel and directing Hezbollah ground forces in the Juayya area of southern Lebanon.”
Elsewhere, Israeli warplanes struck “Hezbollah surface-to-air missile launchers that were threatening aircraft flying over Lebanon,” an Israeli military statement said.
Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israeli forces and positions on Thursday, while NNA reported further Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
“Stop firing.”
Fighting between the two countries, which last went to war in 2006, has intensified in recent weeks, and the Israeli army said on Tuesday that “an operational plan for an attack on Lebanon has been approved and verified.”
Following the Hezbollah leader’s threats against Cyprus, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that “Relations between Lebanon and Cyprus are based on a rich history of diplomatic cooperation.”
A foreign ministry statement said contacts and consultations at the “highest level” between the two countries continued, without specifically mentioning Nasrallah’s remarks.
NNA reported that during a meeting with Cypriot Foreign Minister Abdalla Bou Habib, he said that “Lebanon always relies on the active role that Cyprus plays in supporting regional stability.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron discussed bilateral relations and “the situation in Lebanon and the region” in a telephone call, Downing Street said in a statement.
Also on Thursday, UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Janine Henis-Plusschaart visited UN peacekeepers in the Lebanese border town of Naqqara and said “conflict is not inevitable.”
“It is crucial that all parties stop firing and work towards a sustainable solution in line with Security Council resolution 1701,” she said in a statement.
The resolution called for an end to the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and for the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers to be the sole military forces in the south of the country.
Cross-border violence has killed at least 479 people in Lebanon since October, mostly combatants but also 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israeli authorities said at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed in the north of the country.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
