Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah were involved this Saturday in a new exchange of fire, in which the Israeli army claimed to have attacked southern Lebanon in response to shots fired in the north of the country.
“Around forty launches were identified from Lebanon towards the Meron area, in northern Israel,” the Israeli army said in a statement, cited by the Spanish agency EFE.
In response, Israeli forces attacked a “terrorist cell involved in launching” projectiles, the army added.
Throughout the morning (local time), the Israeli army issued several warnings and alarm sirens were activated in the north of the country.
Hezbollah claimed that dozens of rockets were fired at a military base in northern Israel, describing the attack as an initial response to the elimination of Hamas’ number two near Beirut.
“As part of the initial response to the assassination of the great leader Saleh al-Arouri (…), the Islamic resistance [Hezbollah] headed to the base [militar] of Meron with 62 missiles of different types,” the pro-Iran movement declared in a statement, according to the French agency AFP.
Both sides made no reference to victims or material damage in the exchange of gunfire in the last few hours.
Saleh al-Arouri and six other Hamas leaders were killed on Tuesday in an attack attributed to Israel against an office of the Palestinian Islamist movement, an ally of Hezbollah.
Israel is in a “very high state of alert” on its northern border with Lebanon, in the face of attacks by the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Friday.
The Israeli-Lebanese border is experiencing the greatest period of tension since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, following the resurgence of actions by pro-Palestinian militias in the context of the current war between Israel and Hamas.
The war was triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group on Israeli soil on October 7, from the Gaza Strip, which caused 1,200 deaths and two hundred hostages, according to Israel.
Since then, Israel has launched an offensive by land, air and sea against the small Palestinian coastal enclave that has caused 22,400 deaths, according to a report from Hamas health structures.
Considered a terrorist group by Israel, Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it expelled the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), led by Mahmoud Abbas, from the territory, concentrated in the West Bank.
Source: TSF
