Lebanese Hezbollah launches large-scale attack on Israel, ‘first phase’ complete

Lebanon’s Hezbollah has carried out a major attack against Israeli military targets in response to the assassination of one of its leaders on Sunday, August 25, using drones and rockets. An attack now “finished” for Sunday, according to the same source. Hezbollah said that this “first phase” had been “successfully completed”, specifying that its objective was to target the “Israeli barracks and positions to facilitate the passage of attack drones” towards Israeli territory “in depth”.

“The number of Katyusha rockets launched so far is more than 320,” wrote the Shiite movement in another statement, saying it had targeted eleven Israeli bases and barracks. The Israeli army claims for its part to have carried out preemptive strikes in Lebanon to prevent a “major attack”.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency across Israel for 48 hours starting at 6 a.m. Sunday, saying “convinced that there is a high probability that an attack will be carried out against the civilian population also in other areas of the country”.

The clashes broke out amid negotiations in Cairo aimed at establishing a truce in the war in the Gaza Strip, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, a movement supported by Iran, have been almost daily since the start of the war in Gaza. For several weeks, the international community has been warning of a possible regional spillover of the conflict. Especially since the death of a Hezbollah military leader at the end of July, killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, and that in Tehran of the former leader of Hamas, attributed to Israel by Iran. Hezbollah and Tehran have promised to retaliate.