(Beirut) Lebanese Hezbollah fired a hundred rockets on Wednesday against Israeli military positions in response to the death of one of its commanders killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon, violence that fueled fears of an escalation.
According to a source close to Hezbollah, this is the third senior military leader killed in southern Lebanon since the start of violence between the pro-Iranian party and Israel on October 8, the day after the outbreak of war in Gaza.
In a statement, Hezbollah announced the death of “Commander Mohammed Neemeh Nasser, born in 1965” in Hadatha in southern Lebanon, the second military leader killed in less than a month.
Hezbollah also reported a second fighter killed on Wednesday.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had “eliminated” Mohammed Nasser, identified as “the commander of the Aziz unit” of Hezbollah, “responsible for the shootings on Israeli territory from southwest Lebanon.”
According to another source close to the Shiite party, Mohammed Nasser, killed in a strike targeting a vehicle near Tyre, was a “leader of one of the three sectors in southern Lebanon.”
PHOTO RELATIONSHIP WITH HEZBOLLAH MEDIA, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hezbollah commander Mohammad Neemeh Nasser, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit his car, in the southern coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
The movement announced that it had responded “to the attack and assassination perpetrated by the enemy” by firing “100 Katyusha rockets” at two Israeli positions on the Syrian Golan Heights annexed by Israel.
He then reported new firings of “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on one of the positions in the Golan, as well as firings of “Falaq rockets” and heavy Burkan missiles on two military sites in northern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman said about 100 rockets were launched from Lebanon.
In a statement, the Israeli military said emergency services were “working to extinguish a number of fires” caused by one of the attacks, in the Kiryat Shmona area of northern Israel.
PHOTO JALAA MAREY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israeli air defense systems on July 3.
” Escalation ”
Hezbollah “will increase its pressure” on Israel, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah reacted in a statement, while the movement has been exchanging fire daily on the border with Israel for nearly nine months, claiming to support Hamas in its war against the Israeli army in Gaza.
“We are very concerned about the escalation of the exchange of fire,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He warned of the risks for the region “as a whole if we were to end up in a full-blown conflict.”
On June 11, Taleb Sami Abdallah, also commander of one of the three sectors in southern Lebanon, was killed in a similar strike in Jouaiyya, about 15 km from the Israeli border, which left three other people dead.
Hezbollah responded violently by bombing northern Israel.
In January, Hezbollah announced the death of Wissam Tawil, described as “a commander of the Al Radwan force”, the movement’s elite unit, in an Israeli strike.
“Preventing a conflagration”
The border violence has left at least 495 dead in Lebanon, including around 95 civilians and a majority of Hezbollah fighters, according to an AFP count based on data from the Shiite movement and official Lebanese sources.
On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to authorities. In both countries, tens of thousands of residents have been displaced by the fighting.
At the end of June, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “the importance of avoiding a further escalation of the conflict and reaching a diplomatic solution.”
The American envoy, Amos Hochstein, who has visited Lebanon several times, was due to meet in Paris on Wednesday with the French special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian.
For its part, Tehran warned Israel on Saturday that “all members of the axis of resistance”, which includes Iran and its regional allies, could mobilize in the event of a “large-scale” offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The intensification of hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah during the month of June and the belligerents’ belligerent rhetoric have raised fears of an all-out war.
But over the past week, the fighting has relatively decreased in intensity.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the “absolute necessity of preventing a conflagration” between Israel and Hezbollah, during a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.