BEIRUT: Hezbollah launched a major rocket and drone attack on Israel on Thursday and threatened to attack new sites in retaliation for the killing of one of its top commanders.
The party fired advanced Burkan and Falaq rocket attacks at various locations in northern Israel, including five army barracks, a shopping center in Acre and the Golan Heights.
The Israeli military said one soldier was killed and several others were seriously wounded in the attack. Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth reported that 25 firefighting teams were deployed to fight 10 fires in the Golan and Upper Galilee sparked by the incident.
The head of the Aziz Hezbollah unit, Mohammed Nimah Nasser, and his companion were killed during an Israeli airstrike on the Tire road. Nasser is the most prominent field commander to be killed since the beginning of the conflict.
Last month, the commander of Al-Nasr Hezbollah, Talib Sami Abdullah, was killed in a bomb attack on a house in Juwaya.
A source close to Hezbollah said Nasser had “great symbolism” in the party. It first became involved in the resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 1984 and has been involved in the current conflict since October 8.
“When Israel established the border zone, it was involved in all the invasions until the liberation of the south in 2000. It played its part in the July 2006 war and the wars in Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2016,” the source said.
Hashem Safieddine, head of Hezbollah’s executive council, said the southern front would “remain active and strong” and that the Israeli army would face “a resounding defeat amid the steadfastness of the people of Gaza and the resistance that will remain in Gaza.” “
According to security sources, Hezbollah launched 25 drones from Lebanese territory towards northern Israel’s Upper Galilee and the Golan “after emptying the Iron Dome of anti-missile missiles.”
Israeli media said there were reports of several drone explosions and that sirens sounded in Kidmat Zvi in the southern Golan. Other reports said a soldier was killed and others were wounded.
A Hezbollah statement said that “a salvo of Katyusha rockets targeted the newly created position of Israeli soldiers in the settlement of Kfar Blum.”
It also stated that it fired more than 200 rockets of various types at the headquarters of the 91st Brigade at Ayelet Barracks, the headquarters of the 7th Armored Brigade at Katsavia Barracks, the headquarters of the 7th Brigade Armored Battalion at Gamla Barracks, the headquarters of Brigade 210 (Golan Brigade) at the Nafah base and Brigade 210 Artillery Battalion Headquarters at Yarden Barracks.
Hezbollah said it attacked the Al-Baghdadi site with a Burkan missile.
On Wednesday evening, in response to Nasser’s death, Hezbollah said it shelled “Zarit Barracks with Burkan rockets, the headquarters of the Ground Forces Battalion in Kila’a Barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets, and the headquarters of Brigade 769 in Kiryat Shmona Barracks.” with Falaq missiles.”
The group also targeted the Birkat Risha and Al-Raheb sites.
A military source told Israel’s Army Radio that the scale of the attack was “fully in line with Hezbollah’s announcement.”
The Israeli military said it “observed the firing of approximately 160 shells and 15 suicide drones from Lebanon, and air defenses intercepted most of them.”
Israeli media reported that “train service from Haifa to Nahariya has been suspended due to the security situation.”
The military escalation in southern Lebanon coincided with the arrival of a delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lebanese Parliament to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqour to the sound of sirens.
The delegation was met by UNIFIL mission commander Lieutenant General Aroldo Lazaro and senior officials. The meeting included a review of UNIFIL’s role and missions ahead of the renewal of the international force’s mandate for another year next month.
The Hezbollah attack was met with a violent Israeli response that was mirrored in Beirut as warplanes broke the sound barrier over the south and reached Beirut and its southern suburbs and Metn in Mount Lebanon.
Hezbollah said Hady party member Ahmed Shreym, 28, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in Houla.
Israeli warplanes also attacked Aitaroun, Aita Al-Shaab and Ramia, while Israeli artillery attacked the towns of Khiam, Udaysah, Kafr Kila, Rab El-Thalathine, Qantara, Deir Seryan, Qabrikha and Naqoura.
Several civilians were injured in the shelling of Kfar Shouba, including Ahmad Ghanem, a member of the city council, and Ali Al-Hajj, who was in the same house.