Hezbollah said it fired “dozens” of rockets at a military base in northern Israel on Thursday in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon, saying four of its fighters were killed.
Fears of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown in recent weeks as threats have escalated between the two sides, who have exchanged regular cross-border fire since a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 sparked a war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’ ally Hezbollah said its fighters “bombarded the main air and missile defense base of the (Israeli) Northern Area Command with dozens of Katyusha rockets” in “response to enemy attacks targeting the town of Nabatiyeh and the village of Sohmor.”
It said in separate statements that four of its fighters had been killed, including one from Sohmour in eastern Lebanon. It also claimed responsibility for two other attacks on Israeli soldiers and bases, one of them carried out with a drone.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “approximately 35 launches have been identified coming from Lebanon.”
It added that the air defence system “successfully intercepted most of the launches. There were no reports of any casualties.”
It said three Hezbollah militants were killed in the air strikes, one in the Sohmour region and two in the south of the country.
The army also said that “two UAVs (drones) coming from Lebanon fell in northern Israel” and there were no reports of casualties.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes in several areas of southern Lebanon on Thursday, saying “more than 20” people were injured a day earlier in an attack targeting a two-story building in Nabatiyeh.
Fears have grown that the Gaza war could become a regional conflict if the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, which has so far been largely confined to the border area, escalates.
France’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Paris was “deeply concerned” about the fighting and called for “utmost restraint on all sides.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said during a visit to Washington on Wednesday that his country does not want war in Lebanon but that it could send it back to the “Stone Age” if diplomacy fails.
Amid Western diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in recent months, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Beirut on Tuesday and warned that “miscalculations” could spark a wider war, urging “utmost restraint.”
The violence has killed 485 people in Lebanon, most of them combatants but also 94 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
According to officials, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.
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