Former US officials: US bears “indisputable complicity” in war killings in Gaza

BEIRUT: Hezbollah launched a major rocket and drone attack on Israel on Thursday and threatened to attack more targets in retaliation for the killing of one of its top commanders.

The party launched attacks with modern Burkan and Falaq rockets on various targets in northern Israel, including five military barracks, a shopping center in Akko and the Golan Heights.

The Israeli army said one soldier died in the attack and several others were seriously injured. The Israeli news agency Yedioth Ahronoth reported that 25 firefighting teams had been deployed to fight 10 fires in the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee sparked by the incident.

The head of Hezbollah’s Aziz unit, Mohammed Nimah Nasser, and his companion were killed in an attack by an Israeli aircraft on the road to Tyre. Nasser is the most high-profile field commander to be killed since the beginning of the conflict.

Last month, the commander of Hezbollah’s Al-Nasr unit, Talib Sami Abdullah, was killed in a bomb attack on a house in Juwaya.

A source close to Hezbollah said Nasser had “great symbolic power in the party.” He first became involved in the resistance against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 1984 and has been involved in the current conflict since October 8.

“When Israel established the border strip, it was involved in all incursions until the liberation of the south in 2000. It played its role in the July 2006 war and in the wars in Syria and Iraq between 2011 and 2016,” the source said.

Hashem Safieddine, chairman of Hezbollah’s executive council, said the southern front would “remain active and strong” and that the Israeli army faced a “crushing defeat” given the steadfastness of the Gaza population and the resistance that will remain there.

According to security sources, Hezbollah launched 25 drones from Lebanese territory toward northern Israel, the Upper Galilee and the Golan “after emptying the Iron Dome of interceptor missiles.”

Israeli media reported that there were several drone explosions and sirens sounded in Kidmat Zvi in ​​the southern Golan. Other reports said one soldier was killed and others injured.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it had “attacked a newly established position of Israeli soldiers in the settlement of Kfar Blum with a volley of Katyusha rockets.”

In addition, over 200 rockets of various types were fired at the 91st Brigade headquarters in Ayelet Barracks, the 7th Armored Brigade Command Headquarters in Katsavia Barracks, the 7th Brigade Armored Battalion Command Headquarters in Gamla Barracks, the 210th Brigade (Golan Brigade) Command Headquarters in Nafah Base, and the 210th Brigade Artillery Battalion Headquarters in Yarden Barracks.

Hezbollah said it attacked the Al-Baghdadi site with a Burkan rocket.

In response to Nasser’s death, Hezbollah said on Wednesday evening that it had fired “at the Zarit barracks with Burkan rockets, the headquarters of the Land Forces Battalion in the Kila’a barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets, and the command headquarters of Brigade 769 in the Kiryat Shmona barracks with Falaq rockets.”

The group also targeted the Birkat Risha and Al-Raheb sites.

A military source told Israeli army radio that the scale of the attack was “fully consistent with Hezbollah’s announcement.”

The Israeli army said it had “observed the launch of about 160 grenades and 15 suicide drones from Lebanon, and air defenses intercepted most of them.”

Israeli media reported that “train traffic from Haifa to Nahariya has been suspended due to the security situation.”

The military escalation in southern Lebanon coincided with the arrival of a delegation from the Lebanese Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee at UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, amid sirens.

The delegation was received by UNIFIL Mission Commander Lieutenant General Aroldo Lazaro and senior officials. The meeting also discussed UNIFIL’s role and missions ahead of the extension of the international force’s mandate for a further year next month.

Hezbollah’s attack was met with violence by Israel, which was echoed in Beirut as warplanes broke the sound barrier over the south, reaching Beirut and its southern suburbs as well as Metn in the Lebanon Mountains.

Hezbollah said 28-year-old party member Hady Ahmed Shreym was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in Houla.

Israeli warplanes also carried out attacks on Aitaroun, Aita Al-Shaab and Ramia, while Israeli artillery struck the towns of Khiam, Udaysah, Kafr Kila, Rab El-Thalathine, Qantara, Deir Seryan, Qabrikha and Naqoura.

The shelling of Kfar Shouba injured several civilians, including Ahmad Ghanem, a member of the city council, and Ali Al-Hajj, who was in the same house.