Hezbollah fires rocket barrages at Israel after commander killed

[Pelican Press 0]

Hezbollah fires rocket barrages at ******* after commander *******

3 hours ago

By David Gritten, BBC News

Reuters

Hezbollah rockets sparked fires in several locations in northern ******* on Wednesday

Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement has fired multiple barrages of rockets into northern ******* in retaliation for an ******** strike which ******* one of its senior commanders.

The ******* Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly identified more than 200 projectiles that crossed the border on Wednesday. Some triggered fires, but no casualties were reported.

It came as a top Hezbollah official vowed that the Iran-backed group would increase the intensity, force and quantity of its attacks.

He was speaking at the ******** of Taleb Sami Abdullah, the field commander targeted in a strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday night.

There have been exchanges of ***** across the *******-Lebanon border almost every day since the day after the start of the war between ******* and ****** in Gaza on 7 October.

Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of the ************ group. Both are proscribed as ********** organisations by *******, the *** and other countries.

More than 375 people have been ******* in Lebanon, including at least 88 civilians, according to Lebanese authorities and the UN, while the ******** military says 18 soldiers and 10 civilians have been ******* in *******.

The hostilities have also displaced tens of thousands of people from border communities in northern ******* and southern Lebanon.

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

Sirens sounded across northern ******* 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 *******, 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 “********** 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 *******, it added.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that ******** 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, *******’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

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

*****-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.

EPA

Hezbollah vowed to escalate its attacks on ******* in response to what it called the “**************” of commander Taleb Abdullah

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

Among the targets were ******** 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 ******** in Beirut that ******* 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 ******* 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 ******* attacks against ******** civilians”.

Security sources in Lebanon told Reuters news agency that Abdullah was Hezbollah’s commander for the central region of the southern border strip and that he was more senior than

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Last week, after rocket ***** sparked wildfires that burned through 3,500 acres of land in northern *******, 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.

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#Hezbollah #fires #rocket #barrages #******* #commander #*******

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