The Israeli Army launched a series of ground and air attacks this Saturday against Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, in response to the launch by the Lebanese Shiite group of more than sixty projectiles against an intelligence center. of the Israeli forces.
In a statement, the Israeli Army reported that the areas of Metula and Margaliot in northern Israel were also attacked from southern Lebanon, as well as Meron, where it has one of its main intelligence centers.“In response, an Israeli Air Force drone attacked a terrorist cell responsible for launches towards the Metula area,” he noted.In addition, Israeli aviation and ground forces launched attacks against Hezbollah targets such as missile launch sites, military positions and infrastructure of the Shiite group in several areas of southern Lebanon such as Ayta ash Shab, Yaroun and Ramyeh, according to the statement.
Hezbollah confirmed having launched 62 projectiles against one of the main intelligence centers in northern Israel, in its first response to the assassination on Tuesday of the number two of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Saleh al Arouri, on the outskirts of Beirut, in a bombing attributed to Israel.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah warned on Friday that the bombing, for which Israel has not officially claimed responsibility, “would not go unanswered.”
The Israeli-Lebanese border is experiencing its greatest tension since the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Hostilities have increased even more after the bombing that killed Saleh Al Arouri , deputy head of Hamas, in Beirut on Tuesday, in an action attributed to Israel, which neither recognized nor denied the operation.
The high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, spoke this Saturday with Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro, head of the United Nations mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), about the risk of escalation in the call “blue line”, the border between Lebanon and Israel.
The head of European diplomacy stressed “the commitment” of that mission and the “firm support” of the EU to United Nations missions.
At least 122 dead in Gaza in the last 24 hours
In Gaza, the Israeli military offensive caused at least 122 deaths and 256 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Strip reported this Saturday.
“The Israeli occupation commits 12 massacres against families in the Strip” in the last 24 hours, the ministry, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, denounced in a statement.
The official Palestinian Wafa agency reported this Saturday that at least 35 Gazans were killed and 60 injured, most of them children and women, in Israeli attacks in the Deir al Balah area, in the center of the coastal enclave.
In Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, at least ten people were killed and several wounded in the attack on a house, while in Rafah, in the southernmost part of the Strip, Israeli warplanes launched several attacks, according to Wafa.
Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, after a massive attack by the Islamist group, which included the launching of rockets and the simultaneous infiltration of thousands of militiamen who massacred some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 in towns near Gaza. .
Since Israel declared war on Hamas after a massive attack by the Islamist group in which 1,200 people died, more than 22,600 Palestinians have died, according to authorities in the Strip, controlled by Hamas.
Hezbollah announces 5 deaths in its ranks in a violent day
The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah announced today that five of its fighters were killed by Israeli attacks, including with white phosphorus, in a particularly violent day in which the movement began its first phase of response to the assassination of Hamas number two, Saleh al Arouri, in Beirut.
“Israel has been launching continuous attacks against southern Lebanon, mainly against homes and land, using airstrikes and artillery shells, including white phosphorus shells,” Hezbollah said in a statement, in which it identified the five “martyrs.” .
The powerful group claimed responsibility for at least five attacks, including against a “concentration of Israeli Army infantry soldiers in the vicinity of the Honen barracks.”
These five attacks are in addition to the 62 projectiles launched this morning against one of the main intelligence centers in northern Israel, in their first response to the assassination of Al Arouri this week.
For its part, the Israeli Army said in a statement that it responded to actions from Lebanon and attacked “two Hezbollah military complexes, which contained important assets of the terrorist organization” in the south of the Mediterranean country.
The source noted that none of the attacks from Lebanon caused any casualties among their ranks.
Lebanese formation and Israeli forces have been engaged in intense crossfire across the border between the two countries since October 8, while this week’s attack in the suburbs of Beirut has raised fears of further escalation.
Today’s violent day occurs during the visit of the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, who held high-level meetings today with the Lebanese authorities as part of diplomatic efforts to avoid a war in the country.
By TTU
