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Hizbollah stated it had fired greater than 200 rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that killed certainly one of its senior commanders, as tensions between the 2 sides escalated sharply on Thursday.
The barrage, one of many largest launched by the Lebanese militant group because the outbreak of the Hamas-Gaza battle final October, got here amid fears that long-simmering hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah, one of many world’s most closely armed non-state actors, might boil over right into a full-blown battle.
Hizbollah stated its rockets had focused a number of navy bases in Israel in response to Israel’s killing on Wednesday of Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who led one of many militant group’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.
The Iran-backed group had additionally launched an preliminary salvo of rockets with heavy warheads into northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights within the speedy aftermath of Nasser’s killing.
The Israeli navy stated on Thursday that “quite a few projectiles” had been launched at Israel and that it was responding with strikes in Lebanon.
Hizbollah and Israeli forces have been buying and selling near-daily fireplace because the eruption of the battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7, with Hizbollah first firing rockets the next day in assist of Hamas.
Regardless of the intensifying exchanges, which have displaced tens of hundreds of individuals and induced casualties in each Lebanon and Israel, the 2 sides have to this point not been drawn right into a full-blown battle. The US has been main a diplomatic push for them to de-escalate the state of affairs.
Nevertheless, Israeli officers have repeatedly stated they’re ready to take navy motion within the absence of a diplomatic decision, and the Israel Protection Forces stated two weeks in the past that it had authorised “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon”.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant stated on Wednesday that Israel would “attain a state of full readiness to take any motion required in Lebanon, or to achieve an association from a place of energy”.
He added: “We favor an association, but when actuality forces us, we are going to know find out how to struggle.”
Hizbollah has misplaced greater than 320 fighters because the begin of hostilities final October, in keeping with an FT tally. They embody a couple of dozen mid- to high-ranking officers, an individual accustomed to the group’s operations instructed the FT final month.
Greater than 90 Lebanese civilians have additionally been killed, in keeping with FT calculations, whereas in northern Israel, no less than 18 troopers and 11 civilians have died in cross-border fireplace.
Hizbollah officers have repeatedly stated they weren’t searching for an all-out battle with Israel. However they’ve insisted they won’t cease firing till there’s a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In an effort to interrupt the impasse in Gaza, US President Joe Biden in Might set out a three-stage plan for ending the battle, which has change into the deadliest within the historical past of the Israeli-Palestinian battle and fuelled a humanitarian disaster within the territory.
However talks brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US on a deal to free the roughly 120 Israeli hostages nonetheless held by Hamas and finish the combating in Gaza have been deadlocked, with Israel resisting calls for from Hamas that any deal result in a everlasting ceasefire.
Israel stated on Wednesday that it had obtained Hamas’s response to Biden’s proposal and was “evaluating” it. Netanyahu and different officers are anticipated to debate the main points at a gathering in a while Thursday.
