Hezbollah launches missile barrage at Israel to avenge high commander

Hezbollah launched tons of of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel’s navy mentioned it struck Lebanon with round 100 jets to thwart an even bigger assault, in one of many greatest clashes in additional than 10 months of border warfare.

Missiles had been seen curling up by means of the daybreak sky, darkish vapor trails behind them, as an air raid siren sounded in Israel and a distant blast lit the horizon, whereas smoke rose over homes in Khiam in southern Lebanon.

The extent of injury was not instantly clear and Hezbollah indicated it was not planning additional strikes but, whereas Israel’s Overseas Minister mentioned the nation didn’t search a full-scale warfare.

Any main escalation within the preventing, which started in parallel with the warfare in Gaza, dangers morphing right into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah’s backer Iran and Israel’s essential ally america.

Sunday’s strikes got here as negotiators had been assembly in Cairo in a last-ditch effort to conclude a halt to the preventing in Gaza.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group mentioned it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets in direction of Israel and hit 11 navy targets in what it known as the primary part of its retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander, final month.

Israel’s navy mentioned it had foiled a a lot bigger assault with pre-emptive airstrikes after assessing that Hezbollah was making ready to launch the barrage, utilizing 100 jets to strike greater than 40 Hezbollah launch websites in southern Lebanon.

The strikes destroyed hundreds of launcher barrels, aimed principally at northern Israel but in addition concentrating on some central areas, Israel’s navy mentioned.

Hezbollah dismissed Israel’s assertion that the group’s assault had been foiled with pre-emptive strikes, saying it had been in a position to launch its drones as deliberate and that the remainder of its response to Shukr’s killing would take “some time”.

Israel’s cupboard met at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT). Protection Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency and Overseas Minister Israel Katz mentioned Israel would reply to developments on the bottom however didn’t search a full-scale warfare.

Flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv had been suspended for round 90 minutes.

“We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned in a press release.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati met cupboard ministers at a session of the nationwide emergency committee. Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will communicate on tv afterward Sunday, the group mentioned.

The United Nations peacekeeping drive in Lebanon and the U.N.’s particular coordinator’s workplace within the nation known as on all sides to stop hearth, calling the developments in a single day “worrying”.

Expectations of an escalation had risen since a missile strike within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights final month killed 12 children and the Israeli navy assassinated Shukr in Beirut in response.

In northern Israel, warning sirens sounded and a number of explosions had been heard round a number of areas as Israel’s Iron Dome aerial protection system shot down rockets coming from southern Lebanon. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service mentioned it was on excessive alert everywhere in the nation.

The Israeli navy issued civil protection directions from central Israel to the north, limiting gatherings however authorizing folks to go to work so long as they had been in a position to attain air raid shelters rapidly. There have been no casualties instantly reported in Israel, in line with the ambulance service.

Israeli media mentioned the barrage hitting northern areas had broken some homes and a hen coop.

A safety supply in Lebanon mentioned a minimum of 40 Israeli strikes had hit varied cities within the nation’s south in one of many densest bombardments since hostilities started in October.

One of many strikes in town of Khiam killed one fighter from the Hezbollah-allied Shi’ite group Amal, two safety sources advised Reuters. Amal later introduced his demise.

A resident of the southern Lebanese city of Zibqeen, some 7 km (4 miles) from the border, advised Reuters it was the primary time he had woke up “to the sound of planes and the loud explosions of rockets – even before the dawn prayer. It felt like the apocalypse.”

Israel’s Military Radio, citing protection officers, mentioned the navy assessed that the Hezbollah barrage on northern Israel was “improvised” after the pre-emptive strike by Israeli jets on the Hezbollah launch websites.

President Joe Biden was following occasions carefully, the White Home mentioned.

“At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts. We will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability,” mentioned Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson Sean Savett.

Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel instantly after the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas gunmen on Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging hearth continuously ever since, whereas avoiding a significant escalation as warfare rages in Gaza to the south.

That precarious stability appeared to shift after the strike within the Golan Heights, for which Hezbollah denied duty, and the next assassination of Shukr, one in every of Hezbollah’s most senior navy commanders.

Shukr’s demise in an air strike was rapidly adopted by the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which led to vows of reprisal in opposition to Israel by Iran.