The Israeli military announced on Saturday that it had launched airstrikes against Hezbollah targets after attacks by the Lebanese movement marked an escalation of tension on Israel’s northern border.
“In response to fire from Lebanon (…), Israeli army fighter jets struck Hezbollah terrorist targets,” the army said in a statement, which also reported strikes of tanks and missiles towards Lebanese territory.
The targets hit “include terrorist infrastructure, rocket storage sites and military complexes,” the text added.
Hezbollah, for its part, indicated that it had attacked five Israeli positions on the border and, in another attack, had hit an Israeli military position on the border not far from Kiryat Shmona.
Videos posted on social media showed a loud explosion followed by a large cloud of black smoke at the location of the Israeli surveillance facility.
Earlier this morning, the Israeli military said it had hit “two terrorist cells” and a Hezbollah “observation post” in response to an attempt to fire from Lebanon into Israeli territory .
“In response to two terrorist cells attempting to fire from Lebanon into Israeli territory, the Israeli military struck Hezbollah cells and an observation post,” the army said in a communicated
The army also indicated that it had responded to mortar fire coming from Lebanon towards Israeli locations “in the north of Israel”, and specified that no one was injured.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, visiting the reservists, reiterated Saturday that his country has “no interest in a war” on its northern border, but warned that if Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah “make a mistake, it would seal the fate of Lebanon.”
Since October 7, a war has been pitting Israel against Palestinian Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, triggered by an unprecedented scale attack by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
Since then, the Lebanese-Israeli border has been the scene of frequent exchanges of fire between the Israeli army on one side and the powerful Lebanese movement Hezbollah and its allies, who support Hamas, on the other.
In his first speech since the start of the conflict, the Hezbollah leader on Friday accused the United States of being “fully responsible” for the war between Israel and Hamas.
He also warned Israel against the “stupidity” of attacking Lebanon, adding that stopping the “aggression against Gaza” would prevent regional conflict.
The increase in tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border raises fears of a regional extension of the conflict.
In Israel, at least 1,400 people were killed according to the authorities, mostly civilians on the day of the Hamas attack. Nearly 9,500 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas government that controls the territory.
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