Hezbollah rocket attack on Israel draws retaliation

GBNews24 Desk//

Lebanon’s Hezbollah fired a volley of rockets at Israeli positions on Friday, prompting retaliatory shelling, in an escalation between the Iran-backed Shiite movement and the Jewish state.

A flare-up along the border this week has seen Israel carry out its first air strikes on Lebanese territory in seven years and Hezbollah claim a direct rocket attack on Israeli territory for the first time since 2019.

The exchanges coincide with rising tensions between Iran and Israel since a deadly attack on an Israeli-managed tanker in the Gulf of Oman last week.

Following Friday morning’s exchange, Israel said it did “not wish to escalate to a full war”, as the United Nations peacekeeping force in the border region, UNIFIL, warned of “a very dangerous situation”.

The US State Department called on Lebanon, which has had only a caretaker government for nearly a year and where Hezbollah is a formidable political force, “urgently to prevent such attacks and bring the area under its control”.

The statement came shortly after a call by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz for US pressure on Lebanon.

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at open ground near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district.

It said the attack came in response to Israeli air strikes on south Lebanon on Thursday that were the first since 2014.

An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon said he heard several explosions and saw smoke rising from around the Shebaa Farms.

Israel said 19 rockets were fired, six of which hit Israeli ground.

Three fell short, while the others were intercepted by air defences, it said.