Hezbollah launches rockets at north Israel following death of 5 key fighters

A day after an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon killed five of the group’s senior fighters, the militant Hezbollah organization launched more than fifty rockets at military posts in northern Israel on Thursday.

One of the most intense bombardments since Hezbollah began attacking Israeli posts in the country’s north at the start of the Israel-Hamas war was represented by the waves of rockets fired over the border.

Hezbollah claims it is relieving pressure on the Gaza Strip, where Israel’s devastating aerial, ground, and naval offensive has killed over 13,300 Palestinians and left much of the sealed-off enclave in ruins, by stepping up its actions on the Israel-Lebanon border.

The conflict began on October 7, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that claimed roughly 1,200 lives, the majority of them civilians, and resulted in the transfer of about 240 hostages to Gaza.

There was supposed to be a four-day cease-fire in Gaza and the release of scores of Palestinian prisoners and militant hostages, but there seemed to have been a last-minute hiccup.

In a series of remarks made public on Thursday, Hezbollah claimed that among the volleys of rockets it fired at Israeli positions were 48 Katyusha missiles aimed towards the Israeli army base in Beit Zeitem, which is located roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) south of the border.

According to the group, its fighters also hit Israeli troops’ take-off sites and tanks.

The five senior fighters, including Abbas Raad, the son of Mohammed Raad, the leader of Hezbollah’s 13-member parliamentary bloc in Lebanon, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the village of Beit Yahoun in southern Lebanon, which was followed by an intense fire.

With these latest deaths, at least 83 Hezbollah fighters have lost their lives in the last seven weeks of fighting.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, met with Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Iran, on Thursday in Beirut.

According to a statement issued by Hezbollah, they talked about the ongoing conflict in Gaza, initiatives to “stop the Israeli aggression,” and the circumstances at the tense border between Lebanon and Israel.
Amirabdollahian warned in comments to journalists upon his arrival in Lebanon Wednesday that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war could “spiral out of control” if a truce does not last.

Iran-backed factions in Iraq, including the militant group Kataib Hezbollah, have carried out more than 60 and rocket or suicide drone attacks at bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. Kataib Hezbollah is allied with Lebanon’s Hezbollah but the groups have different leaders.

The U.S. military said Thursday that one of its warships in the Red Sea shot down bomb-carrying drones launched from territory controlled by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The American military’s Central Command said the USS Thomas Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, shot down the drones early Thursday morning. “The ship and crew sustained no damage or injury,” Central Command said.

(with inputs from The Associated Press)