Lebanon’s Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Israeli kibbutz after drone strike injures civilians

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah said its fighters fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, attacking a kibbutz for the first time in nine months. The action was in retaliation for an Israeli drone strike carried out earlier the same day that wounded several people, including children.

Also on Saturday, the Palestinian militant group Hamas said it had fired rockets from Lebanon at an Israeli army post in the northern Israeli village of Shomera in retaliation for “Zionist massacres” in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has carried out such attacks from Lebanon in recent months, but they have been rare.

Hezbollah’s attack with dozens of Katyusha rockets on the northern Israeli kibbutz Dafna came hours after an Israeli drone strike hit a car in the southern Lebanese village of Burj al-Muluk. Shrapnel from the rocket injured several people standing nearby. The state-run National News Agency said the injured civilians were Syrian citizens and that there were children among them.

The Israeli military said it had detected about 45 missiles in three separate salvos that had entered northern Israel from Lebanon. Some were intercepted, while others landed in open areas, causing no injuries but sparking several fires in the Golan Heights.

On Friday, Hezbollah said it had fired rockets for the first time at three villages in northern Israel in retaliation for an attack that killed several people the previous night.

Shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, Hezbollah began firing rockets, saying it wanted to relieve pressure on Gaza. The exchange of fire and airstrikes, which were limited to a few kilometers or miles on both sides of the border, have forced tens of thousands of people to flee in both countries.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that his group would retaliate for Israeli attacks in Lebanon that result in civilian casualties by firing rockets and attacking new villages that have not been targeted in the past.

Since the beginning of October, more than 450 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians were killed.