Netanyahu told his cabinet that the strikes were “not the last word” in the campaign against Hezbollah
Israel launched airstrikes on Lebanon on Sunday, saying it had destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket launcher of its own.
The result was perhaps the largest firefight in 10 months of a war that began with a Hamas attack from Gaza and has sparked new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border as well as fears of a wider conflagration in the Middle East.
The Israeli military said about 100 of its fighter jets hit more than 270 targets, “90 percent of which were short-range missiles aimed at northern Israel.”
Hezbollah, the powerful Iranian-backed Lebanese armed group, denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation was “completed and accomplished”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that the strikes were “not the last word” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
An Israeli Navy soldier was killed in the battle and another two were injured, the army said. An official told AFP that their boat may have been hit by one of their own party’s air defense interceptors.
Hezbollah has traded cross-border fire with Israeli forces almost daily during the Gaza war, which Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
But fears of a wider regional conflagration mounted after attacks in late July blamed on Israel killed Iran’s leaders, including Hamas’s political leader and a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, prompting vows of revenge.
Britain and Jordan were among those calling on Sunday for an end to the escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also called on the UN Security Council to take “deterrent” and “effective” measures against Netanyahu and his ministers who are “destroying all chances of achieving peace.”
Houses damaged
Hezbollah said its operatives launched “a large number of drones” and “more than 320” Katyusha rockets targeting “enemy positions” across the border.
The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, called the “main target” the Glilot military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which Israeli media reported is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.
The Israeli military said there were “no hits” on the base.
A secondary target, Nasrallah said, was Ein Shemer, a military airport used by Israeli drones.
He also seemed to suggest that Hezbollah’s retaliation for Shukr’s killing was over, saying “if the result is satisfactory”, then the response is “complete”.
An AFP photographer in Acre, an Israeli town 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border, reported damage to three houses by a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel shattering windows and destroying a bed.
“There were explosions in the Haifa area,” said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. “I was stopped and told I couldn’t go to the beach.”
AFPTV footage from early Sunday showed dozens of interceptor missiles launched into dense clouds over the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.
An AFP photographer saw a Hezbollah drone explode in a huge fireball when it was intercepted by the Israeli air force.
Hezbollah announced that two of its fighters had been killed, while its ally, the Amal Movement, also reported the death of a member. No casualties were immediately reported in Israel.
Military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel was “aware” of six officers “killed in the attacks.”
Another military spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, said Hezbollah’s attacks were “part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart much of it this morning.”
The fighting disrupted air traffic in Israel and Lebanon, with both British Airways and Air France suspending flights to Tel Aviv.
‘Stop the escalation’
Yemen’s Huthi rebels, one of several Iranian-backed groups that have moved to the periphery of the Gaza war, cheered Hezbollah’s attack and said their own retaliation was “certainly coming.”
Fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah has killed hundreds of people, mainly in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands of residents on both sides of the border.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told an emergency cabinet meeting that he was in contact with “Lebanon’s friends to stop the escalation.”
Gen. Charles Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military, arrived in Israel on Sunday evening to meet with his Israeli counterpart Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military said.
The United States is Israel’s main military supplier.
A US defense official said Washington had helped track Hezbollah’s barrage, although it was not involved in the shooting down of drones or missiles or in the attacks on Lebanon.
The tracking website Flightradar24 showed on Sunday afternoon that a US Navy surveillance drone was flying over nearby Mediterranean waters.
Gaza talks
Hamas on Sunday called Hezbollah’s attack “a slap in the face” for Israel, and the Palestinian movement said on Sunday evening that it had fired a rocket towards Tel Aviv.
The Israeli army said it landed in an “open area” south of the city.
Ahead of Sunday’s major exchange, Western and Arab diplomats had sought to counter regional retaliation, stressing the urgency of reaching an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose officials have been mediating the ceasefire talks in Gaza for months along with the US and Qatar, “warned of the dangers of a new front opening in Lebanon” and called for progress in the talks to reach a “path to peace” possible. calm and stability in the region,” his office said.
A Hamas official said on Sunday that the group’s delegation had left the Egyptian capital after meeting with mediators.
In Gaza, witnesses said fighting raged in the area of Deir al-Balah, in the territory’s central region.
Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of whom were civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s military retaliation campaign has killed at least 40,405 people in Gaza, the Hamas-held territory’s health ministry said, which did not break down deaths among civilians and militants. According to the UN rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian Hamas operatives in their attack, 105 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli army says are dead.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)