Hezbollah rains rockets on Israel after strike kills commander

[Pelican Press 0]

Hezbollah rains rockets on ******* after strike ****** commander

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired successive barrages of rockets at northern ******* on Wednesday, after an ******** air strike ******* a senior commander in south Lebanon the previous day.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border ***** with the ******** army since its ************ ally ****** attacked southern ******* on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.

The exchanges have intensified in recent weeks, as Hezbollah has stepped up its use of drones to ******* ******** military positions, while ******* has hit back with targeted strikes against the militants.

Hezbollah said it launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at three bases and a barracks in northern *******.

The Iran-backed militant group said it also struck a “military factory” with guided missiles “in response to the ************** carried out by the Zionist ******”.

The ******** army said more than 150 “projectiles” had been fired from Lebanon in three successive barrages.

“A short while ago, approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon,” it said, adding that several were intercepted but others struck inside ******* sparking fires in parts of the north.

The initial barrage was followed by a second of around 70 projectiles and a third of around 10, the military added.

– ‘Knight of the resistance’ –

The army said that in response it struck a rocket launcher in south Lebanon and “four ********** infrastructure sites… from which projectiles were fired at northern *******”.

As temperatures have soared in recent days, the exchanges of ***** have sparked multiple brush fires on both sides of the border.

“******* ***** and Rescue Services are currently operating to extinguish the fires that broke out as a result of the launches,” the military said.

*******’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said there were no immediate reports of any casualties.

The latest barrages from Lebanon came after an ******** air strike ******* a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday.

The ******** army confirmed on Wednesday that it had “eliminated” Taleb Sami Abdallah in a strike on a Hezbollah command centre in southern Lebanon.

In a statement it called Abdallah “one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon” and said he had “planned, advanced, and carried out a large number of ******* attacks against ******** civilians”.

Abdallah was ******* along with three Hezbollah comrades in an ******** strike on Jouaiyya, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the border, a source close to the group told AFP.

A Lebanese military source said the commander was “the most important in Hezbollah to be ******* up to now since the start of the war”.

The group called on its supporters to attend Abdallah’s ******** in the southern suburbs of Beirut, describing him as “one of the knights of the resistance”.

– ”Harsh *****’ –

Pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar described the strike that ******* Abdallah as “a harsh *****” to the group.

But Britain-based Middle East specialist Amal Saad played down the prospect of wider escalation.

“I don’t think that the ****** of this highest-ranking commander is going to change any of Hezbollah’s calculations,” she said, explaining that civilian casualties were “red lines” for the group rather than the targeting of commanders or fighters.

“We witnessed an escalation in quality and quantity of (Hezbollah) attacks in order to put pressure on ******* and the US in the ceasefire talks and improve ******’s bargaining position,” Saad said.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired some 50 rockets at ******** positions in the annexed Golan Heights.

More than eight months of cross-border ********* has ******* at least 468 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 89 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

******** authorities say at least 15 ******** soldiers and 11 civilians have been *******.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border since the ********* erupted the day after the ****** ******* on southern *******.

The October 7 ******* resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in *******, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official ******** figures.

*******’s retaliatory offensive against ****** has ******* at least 37,164 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the ******-run territory’s health ministry.

burs-jd-aya-csp/kir

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#Hezbollah #rains #rockets #******* #strike #****** #commander

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