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Hezbollah said it had fired more than 200 rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed one of its top commanders, as tensions between the two sides rose sharply on Thursday.
The barrage, one of the largest launched by the Lebanese militant group since the Hamas-Gaza war 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 full-blown war.
Hezbollah said the rockets targeted several military bases in Israel in response to Israel’s 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 missiles carrying heavy nuclear warheads at northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights immediately after Nasser’s death.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that “approximately 200 projectiles” and more than 20 drones had been fired into Israel and that it had responded with strikes on military structures in Ramyeh and Houla in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that the attack in Houla left at least one person dead. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in the Hizballah barrage.
Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on October 7, Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been exchanging fire almost daily. The next day, Hezbollah fired rockets in support of Hamas for the first time.
Despite the intensifying exchanges, which have displaced tens of thousands of people and caused casualties in both Lebanon and Israel, the two sides have so far avoided full-fledged war. The US has led a diplomatic push to de-escalate the situation.
However, Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are prepared to take military action in the absence of a diplomatic solution, and the Israel Defense Forces said two weeks ago it had approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that Israel “will be on full alert to take all necessary measures in Lebanon, or to make a settlement from a position of strength.”
He added: “We prefer a settlement, but if reality forces us, we will know how to fight.”
According to a FT count, Hezbollah has lost more than 320 fighters since hostilities began last October, including dozens of mid- to high-ranking officers, a person familiar with the group’s operations told the FT last month.
According to FT calculations, more than 90 Lebanese civilians have also been killed, while in northern Israel at least 18 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed by cross-border fire.
Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not seek all-out war with Israel. But they have insisted they will not stop firing until there is a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In an attempt to break the deadlock in Gaza, US President Joe Biden in May unveiled a three-phase plan to end the war, the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a humanitarian catastrophe in the area.
Negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the US for a deal to release some 120 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and end fighting in Gaza have been deadlocked for months. Israel has resisted Hamas’s demands that a deal lead to a permanent ceasefire.
But in a sign of a renewed effort to break the impasse, Israel said on Thursday it would send negotiators to resume talks after receiving Hamas’s latest response to Biden’s proposal.
An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approved the measure, but reiterated that the war would not end until Israel’s war goals — including freeing the hostages and destroying Hamas — were achieved.