JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hezbollah launched a significant barrage of missiles towards Israel on Sunday in retaliation for the assassination of a senior commander in Beirut final month, the Iranian-backed motion mentioned, as Israel’s cupboard met to arrange a response.
Israeli jets hit targets in Lebanon shortly earlier than the strikes had been launched because the navy assessed that Hezbollah was making ready to start the barrage.
“The IDF identified the Hezbollah terrorist organization preparing to fire missiles and rockets toward Israeli territory. In response to these threats, the IDF is striking terror targets in Lebanon,” the Israel Defence Forces mentioned in a press release.
Israel’s cupboard was to fulfill at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace introduced.
Flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv had been suspended, the airports authority mentioned, and the defence minister declared an emergency.
Warning sirens sounded in northern Israel and a number of explosions had been heard round a number of areas as Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system shot down rockets coming from southern Lebanon. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service mentioned it was on excessive alert all around the nation.
Expectations of an escalation between the 2 sides had risen since a missile strike within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights final month killed 12 children and the Israeli navy assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut in response.
The Israeli navy mentioned new civil defence directions could be issued to the inhabitants shortly. It warned civilians in southern Lebanon to keep away from areas the place Hezbollah operates.
The strikes got here as negotiators had been assembly in Cairo in a last-ditch effort to conclude a halt to combating in Gaza and a return of Israeli and overseas hostages in trade for Palestinian prisoners.
Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel instantly after the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas gunmen on Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging hearth consistently ever since, whereas avoiding a significant escalation as battle rages in Gaza to the south.
That precarious stability appeared to shift after the strike within the Golan Heights, for which Hezbollah denied duty, and the following assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior navy commander in Beirut.
Shukr’s loss of life in an air strike was rapidly adopted by the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which led to vows of reprisal towards Israel by Iran.
