Hezbollah hit northern Israel with 140 rockets on Friday, a day after the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to retaliate against Israel with a series of bombings, the Israeli military and the terror group said.
The Israeli military said the rockets came in three waves on Friday afternoon, targeting areas along the devastated border with Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it carried out a “targeted strike” in Beirut. It did not immediately provide further details, but explosions could be heard from areas south of the city.
Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV reported that an illegal aircraft fired several missiles at the densely populated area known as Dahiyeh.
Health authorities in Lebanon reported that at least three people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured in the airstrikes.
Hezbollah said its attacks targeted several border areas with Katyusha rockets, including several air defense bases and Israel’s army headquarters, which it said it would attack first.
The Israeli military said 120 missiles were fired at the Golan Heights, Safed and the Upper Galilee, some of which were intercepted. Firefighters were trying to put out the fire caused by pieces of debris that fell to the ground in many places, said the military.
The military did not say whether any of the missiles hit or caused casualties.
Another 20 missiles were fired in Meron and Netua areas, while most landed in open areas, the military said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel on Thursday of targeting thousands of pagers in an attack that hit Lebanon this week. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the blast.
It is not related to the attack on the device, Hezbollah said
Hezbollah said the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes in southern Lebanon, not two days after Israel’s most suspected attacks set off explosives on thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire almost daily since October 8, the day after the Israel-Hamas war began, but Friday’s rockets were heavier than usual.
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On Thursday Nasrallah vowed to continue daily strikes in Israel despite the destruction of its members’ communications equipment this week, which he described as a “heavy blow.”
At least 20 people were killed in the attack and thousands were injured when pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The sophisticated attack has raised fears that the exchange of fire will escalate into an all-out war. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attack.
In recent days, Israel has moved a powerful military force to the northern border, officials have increased their rhetoric and the country’s security cabinet has designated the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel an official military objective.
Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 15
Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza has subsided, but the death toll continues to rise.
Overnight, the Palestinian Authority said 15 people were killed in multiple Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
These include six people, including an unknown number of children, in an airstrike on Friday morning in Gaza City that hit a family home, the Gaza Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when the strike hit a group of people in the street.
Israel maintains that it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in settlements. The military, which does not usually comment on individual strikes, did not immediately comment.
The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 95,000 injured in the area since the war began. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in terms of their numbers, but says that slightly more than half of those killed were women and children.
The war has wreaked havoc and displaced nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
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The war began when Hamas led an attack in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, including several Canadians, according to Israeli government figures.
More than 250 hostages were taken at the time, Israel said. Just over 100 hostages remain unaccounted for after being repatriated, but the Israeli government believes that about one-third of that number are missing.
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