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Hezbollah said it fired more than 200 rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed one of its senior commanders, as tensions between the two sides escalated sharply on Thursday.
The firefight, one of the biggest by the Lebanese militant group since war between Hamas and Gaza broke out last October, came amid fears that long-simmering hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state actors, could escalate into an all-out war.
Hezbollah said its rockets attacked several military bases in Israel in response to the Israeli killing on Wednesday of Mohammad Naameh Nasser, who led one of the militant group’s three regional divisions in southern Lebanon.
The Iran-backed group also launched an initial salvo of rockets with heavy warheads into northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights immediately after Nasser’s killing.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that “approximately 200 projectiles” and more than 20 drones were fired at Israel and that it responded with strikes on military structures in Ramyeh and Houla in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the strike in Houla killed at least one person. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed by Hezbollah fire.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded fire almost every day since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza broke out on October 7, with Hezbollah firing rockets in support of Hamas for the first time the following day.
Despite escalating exchanges that have displaced tens of thousands of people and caused casualties in both Lebanon and Israel, the two sides have not yet been drawn into full-scale war. The US put diplomatic pressure on them to de-escalate the situation.
But Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are prepared to take military action if a diplomatic resolution is not adopted, and the Israel Defense Forces said two weeks ago that it had approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Israel “will reach a state of full readiness to take any action that is required in Lebanon or to reach an agreement from a position of strength.”
He added: “We prefer an arrangement, but if reality forces us, we will know how to fight.”
Hezbollah has lost more than 320 fighters since fighting began last October, according to FT statistics. Among them are several dozen mid- to senior-level officers, a person familiar with the group’s operations told the FT last month.
More than 90 Lebanese civilians were also killed, according to FT calculations, while at least 18 soldiers and 11 civilians died in cross-border fires in northern Israel.
Hezbollah officials have repeatedly stated that they do not seek all-out war with Israel. But they insisted they would not stop firing until there was a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In an effort to break the stalemate in Gaza, US President Joe Biden laid out a three-phase plan in May to end the war, which has become the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and fueled a humanitarian disaster in the territory. .
Talks brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US on a deal to free the roughly 120 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and end the fighting in Gaza have been deadlocked for months, with Israel resisting Hamas demands that any deal lead to a permanent ceasefire.
But in a sign of renewed efforts to break the impasse, Israel said Thursday it would send negotiators to resume talks after receiving Hamas’ latest response to Biden’s proposal.
An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the move, but reiterated that the war would not end until Israel’s war goals — which include freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas — were met.