Multiple rocket and drone attacks launched from southern Lebanon Alarms were raised in dozens of communities in northern Israel along the entire border on Thursday (4.07.2024), where sirens sounded incessantly for more than an hour.
The Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah confirmed the launch of more than 200 rockets, and Israeli sources say some 250 projectiles and more than 20 explosive drones were launched.
“Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, numerous suspicious projectiles and aerial targets crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory. “Air defenses successfully intercepted many of them,” said the Israeli army, which is currently attacking southern Lebanon in response.
Hezbollah said the attack was a response to Israel killing commander Mohamed Niamah Nasser in the town of Al Housh near Tyre in southern Lebanon, the second senior commander of the group to be eliminated by Israel in recent weeks. It had already fired a hundred rockets yesterday in retaliation for the killing.
Rocket sirens began to sound in the towns closest to the border -most of them evacuated- in the Golan Heights, but then spread to more distant cities such as Safed, in the Galilee region; or in the coastal cities of Nahariya and Acre, where they have also launched drones loaded with explosives.
“As a result of the explosive drones and shrapnel from the interceptions, fires broke out in several areas in northern Israel. Israel Fire and Rescue Services are currently working to extinguish the fires,” the army added.
A fire broke out in Acre, about 20 kilometres from the border with Lebanon. on the roof of a shopping mall, allegedly by shrapnel from an interception; and according to Israeli media, two soldiers were wounded in this intense attack, without specifying where.
“Most of the rockets fell in open areas, but they caused multiple fires,” Ori Kallner, head of the Golan Regional Council, told Channel 12 live.
A commander of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, Mohamed Nimah Naser (‘Abu Nimah) was killed yesterday, Wednesday, by an Israeli drone strike against the vehicle in which he was traveling in the Al Housh area, in southern Lebanon, confirmed Lebanese sources and the Israeli Army.
Three weeks ago, Another important Hezbollah commander was also killed in an Israeli bombing.Sami Taleb Abdullah, in a house also located in the south of the country.
His death, along with that of several other members of the movement, sparked a sharp escalation between Hezbollah and Israel in the following days, including a massive wave of attacks with more than 200 projectiles against several points in Israel, including the city of Tiberias, more than 60 kilometers from the border.
The border between Israel and Lebanon is experiencing its highest peak of tension since 2006with an intense exchange of fire since October 2023, following the terrorist attacks by the radical Islamist organization Hamas against Israel. The exchange of attacks has claimed the lives of more than 500 people, most of them on the Lebanese side and in the ranks of Hezbollah, which has confirmed at least 327 casualties of militants and commanders, some in Syria, in addition to more than 90 civilians.
In Israel, 25 people have died in the north (15 soldiers and 10 civilians).
Hostilities on the border began on October 8.the day after the war broke out in the Gaza Strip, in solidarity between Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist militias in the enclave; although the exchange of fire has intensified greatly in recent weeks, raising fears of an open war between the parties, although the international community, especially the United States and France, are trying hard to find a diplomatic solution.
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