Hezbollah fires rocket barrages at Israel after commander killed – BBC News

Israeli media described Hezbollah’s rocket and missile fire on Wednesday as “unprecedented” since the escalation in the conflict eight months ago.

Sirens sounded across northern Israel throughout the morning, when more than 170 projectiles were identified as crossing from Lebanon, according to the IDF.

Some of the projectiles were intercepted and others fell in several areas of northern Israel, causing fires to break out in some locations, it said.

The IDF said its aircraft and artillery responded by striking launchers in the southern Lebanese border areas of Yaroun and Hanine, as well as “terrorist infrastructure sites” in Yater.

They struck Yater again in the afternoon, as well Taybeh, Markaba, Rachaya al-Foukhar and Tallouseh, following new launches towards northern Israel, it added.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli air strikes destroyed a house in Yater, injuring one person. It also said warplanes and drones targeted Markaba and that phosphorous shells were fired towards Odaisseh.

By the late afternoon, the total number of projectiles launched from Lebanon had reached 215, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

It also cited Israel’s Fire and Rescue Authority as saying that the fires sparked by the rockets had endangered “strategic sites and facilities”.

Fire-fighters, volunteers, park rangers and soldiers were close to gaining control over blazes in the northern communities of Biriya, Kadita, Ein Zeitim, and Tziv’on, it added.

Hezbollah said it had carried out at least 17 operations against Israel on Wednesday, including eight in response to the “assassination” of Taleb Abdullah and three other fighters.

Among the targets were Israeli military headquarters in Ein Zeitim and Ami’ad, a military air surveillance station in Meron, and a “military factory” in Sasa, according to the group.

The head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, Hashem Safieddine, told hundreds of mourners at Abdullah’s funeral in Beirut that Israel had “not learned the experiences of the past”.

“Experience has proven that the more leaders are martyred, the more stable and entrenched the resistance becomes,” he added. “We will increase our operations in intensity, strength, quantity and quality.”

The IDF said Abdullah and three other Hezbollah operatives were killed in a strike on a Hezbollah command-and-control centre in the village of Jouaiyya on Tuesday night.

It described Abdullah as “one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon” and accused him of planning and carrying out “a large number of terror attacks against Israeli civilians”.

Last week, after rocket fire sparked wildfires that burned through 3,500 acres of land in northern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was prepared for “a very strong action in the north”.

“One way or another we will restore security,” he added.

The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, meanwhile said his forces were “ready to move to an offensive” against Hezbollah.