Hezbollah said it launched missiles and drones at military bases in Israel in retaliation for a recent attack on Beirut and ongoing strikes in the south, where Lebanese authorities reported 11 people killed on Friday.
Israel has kept up its attacks in Lebanon despite a truce agreed last month, and its strike on the capital’s southern suburbs on Wednesday — its first there in nearly a month — killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
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In a statement, Hezbollah said a salvo of missiles targeted a base south of the Israeli city of Nahariya “in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire, the targeting of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the attacks that affected villages and civilians in southern Lebanon”.
Hours later, the Iran-backed group announced it had launched a swarm of drones at another base in northern Israel, saying they too were in response to the Israeli attacks.
Air raid sirens had sounded in several cities in Israel’s north during the first attack, according to the Israeli military, though it did not immediately comment on the second.
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After the first wave, the military said it “intercepted one launch, and the additional launches fell in open areas”, adding that no injuries were reported.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes in four parts of the south killed 10 people on Friday, including two children and three women.
Lebanon’s civil defence had said earlier that one of its members was also killed in an Israeli attack on the south.
The Israeli military said that one of its strikes in the south had hit a member of the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese Resistance Brigades, saying he had also “operated as a rescue worker”.
The Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings for seven southern Lebanese towns, including Toura.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported strikes near Nabi Sheet in the east.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, claimed several attacks on Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
The terms of the ceasefire announced by the US State Department allow Israel to act against imminent or ongoing attacks.
– Upcoming talks –
The latest attacks came as Lebanon and Israel, officially at war since 1948, were set to hold direct negotiations in Washington next week.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with delegation chief Simon Karam on Friday ahead of his departure to the US, giving him “directives outlining Lebanon’s firm positions regarding the negotiations”.
Lebanon and Israel’s US ambassadors had previously met twice in Washington over the past weeks, in an attempt to end the war that started when Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2.
Hezbollah is strongly opposed to the direct talks, calling them a “sin” and urging Beirut to withdraw.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 2,750 people in Lebanon since March 2, including dozens since the ceasefire was announced.
EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib told reporters in Beirut that since the start of the war on March 2, the 27-member bloc has provided 100 million euros in aid and sent six planes carrying humanitarian aid, with a seventh expected on Saturday.
