Israeli forces strike Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to a rocket attack on Israel. Lebanese media reported about 40 Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, The Times of Israel reported.
According to the Israeli military, “Hezbollah” was preparing for a missile attack on the territory of Israel and they claim that the strikes were in fact preventive.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced: “In self-defense and to eliminate threats, the IDF is striking terrorist targets in Lebanon from where Hezbollah was planning to launch an attack on Israeli civilians.”
After the strikes began, Defense Minister Yoav Galant declared a state of emergency for the next 48 hours. Tel-Aviv airport has suspended operations.
The government of Israel is expected to hold an emergency meeting in the coming hours.
Following the statement by the Israeli military, Hezbollah said it had launched a large-scale drone strike. According to the organization’s statements on social media, this was an “initial response” to the recent assassination in Beirut of their commander.
The Israeli military said it reflected an attack of more than 150 drones and missiles.
However, Lebanese media talk about 320 rockets and drones that will be fired at Israel.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on Friday killed eight people, including a child, in various parts of the south. According to Hezbollah, five fighters were among the dead, reports AFP.
The health ministry said an “Israeli enemy drone strike” killed two people, including a “seven-year-old child” in Aita al-Jabal, and that three other “Israeli” strikes killed six people in three other locations in the south.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an “enemy drone” targeted a house in Aita Al Jabal with “two guided missiles.”
The health ministry said the Israeli strikes included an attack “on the village of Tair Harfa that killed three people,” with Hezbollah later lamenting three fighters killed by Israeli fire, including a man from the same village.
A source close to the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the three fighters were killed in the Tyr Harfa strike.
Israel’s military said its planes had “eliminated” members of a “terrorist cell that planned to launch projectiles from the Tire Harfa area.”
Hezbollah said it attacked the northern Israeli base of Meron “in response to enemy attacks on southern villages and homes.”
The threat of full-scale war has grown since Iran and Hezbollah vowed to avenge the killings last month, blamed on Israel, of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in south Beirut.
We recall that cross-border violence since the start of the Gaza war has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon.
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