Hezbollah bombs northern Israel in response to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

Fears of an escalation on the border between Israel and Lebanon are growing. For the UN, an extension of the war in Gaza to Lebanon would be “potentially apocalyptic”.

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A photo taken from southern Lebanon shows smoke billowing from the northern Israeli town of Metulla on June 26, 2024. (RABIH DAHER / AFP)

Lebanese Hezbollah announced Thursday evening June 27 that it had bombed a military base in northern Israel in response to Israeli strikes, one of which killed one of its fighters. This bombing comes at a time when fear of an escalation is growing on the border between Israel and Lebanon. In a statement, the powerful pro-Iranian formation, allied with Hamas, claimed to have launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on “the main air and missile defense base” from northern Israel.

Hezbollah clarified that it was a response to two Israeli strikes, one on Thursday on Sohmor, in eastern Lebanon, and the other the day before on the town of Nabatiyé, in southern Lebanon. , which left five people injured. The Islamist movement announced the death of one of its fighters in Sohmor. According to the Lebanese National Information Agency, a drone targeted a man who was riding a motorcycle in this village.

The Israeli military said a Hezbollah member had been “killed in an airstrike in the Sohmor region”adding that fighter planes had targeted “military structures” in southern Lebanon.

Since the start of the war on October 7 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has been regularly exchanging fire on the border with the Israeli army. Fears that this violence could escalate into an all-out war against Lebanon have grown in recent days. The UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, warned on Wednesday that an extension of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Lebanon would be “potentially apocalyptic”. France said Thursday “extremely concerned by the gravity of the situation in Lebanon”calling “all parties to the greatest restraint.”


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