“No injuries were reported,” according to the Israeli army’s initial assessment. Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran, announced Friday that it had launched “dozens of rockets” at Israeli positions, in response, according to it, to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
This announcement comes against a backdrop of fears of a response from Iran against Israel accused of a strike against the Iranian consulate in Damascus which, according to an NGO, left 16 dead, including two generals of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army. from Iran.
At least 363 people killed in exchanges of fire with Hezbollah
Hezbollah fighters attacked “enemy artillery positions (…) with dozens of Katyusha-type rockets,” the movement said in a statement, adding that it was “a response to attacks by Hezbollah. ‘enemy against (…) southern villages and civilian houses’. The Israeli army indicated for its part that “around 40 shots were detected coming from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted”.
The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported on Friday Israeli shelling and strikes on several Lebanese border villages.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Palestinian Hamas on October 7, daily exchanges of fire have pitted the Israeli army against Lebanese Hezbollah, which claims to support the Palestinian Islamist movement. At least 363 people have been killed in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 70 civilians, in cross-border violence, according to an AFP count. In northern Israel, ten soldiers and eight civilians were killed according to the army.
“If Iran carries out an attack, Israel will attack Iran”
After US President Joe Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that Iran “is threatening to launch a significant attack against Israel”, an American general in charge of the Middle East, Michael Erik Kurilla, is in Israel.
The “level of preparation for an Iranian attack against Israel” was discussed Thursday by American Defense Ministers Lloyd Austin and Israeli Yoav Gallant, according to an official Israeli statement.
“Israel will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory,” Yoav Gallant said. “If Iran carries out an attack from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran,” warned the head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz.