Beirut: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has announced that it targeted Israeli sites with rockets in response to an airstrike on southern Lebanon that killed four Syrians.
“In response to the attack that targeted Chamaa and the martyrdom of several civilians, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombed today enemy army sites in western Galilee and the settlement of Matzuva with dozens of Katyusha rockets,” it said in a statement on Thursday.
Hezbollah added that it also attacked the Jal al-Alam site with rockets, Xinhua news agency reported.
Lebanese military sources told the news agency that the Lebanese army monitored the launching of about 70 surface-to-surface rockets in two separate batches from the Lebanese side into Israel, and some of them were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system.
Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN, reported that the rockets were launched towards the Western Galilee, with 15 of them being intercepted.
The Israeli army in a statement said that five projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel, some of which were intercepted, and the rest fell in open areas. No injuries were reported.
The latest attacks came amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel following Tuesday’s Israeli attack on Dahieh in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fouad Shokor. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli attack at the appropriate time and place.
–IANS