Hezbollah says it has completed the first phase of a retaliatory attack on Israel with “a large number of missiles” in response to the killing of commander Fuad Shukr at the end of July.
The Lebanese group said in a statement on Sunday that it fired more than 320 Katyusha rockets at 11 Israeli military bases and barracks, including the Meron base and four sites in the occupied Golan Heights. The response was a hotly anticipated one, weeks in the making against Israel’s targeted killings of both Hezbollah and Hamas senior commanders, mounting concern of regional escalation.
Hezbollah said it targeted military bases to “facilitate the passage of drones” towards their desired targets deep inside Israel. “And the drones have passed as planned.”
This comes as Israel launched a series of intense air strikes on southern Lebanon early on Sunday in what it said was a “preemptive” attack launched when Hezbollah’s preparation to attack northern Israel was detected.
While Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging tit-for-tat attacks across the border with some intensity since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October, this marks a significant escalation.
“Most of the Israeli strikes on Lebanon were in the border area, up to 5km [3 miles] deep along the 12km [74-mile] border,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut.
“The border area is now a military zone. It’s been evacuated of civilians. It’s been repeatedly hit by the Israeli army in recent months.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to convene a meeting of the Security Council on Sunday morning while Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared a “special situation” and announced a 48-hour nationwide state of emergency from 06:00am (0300 GMT) on Sunday.
Israel’s Ben Gurion airport was temporarily closed in the early hours of the morning, while reports emerged of injuries in northern Israel. Meanwhile, Israeli cities opened public bomb shelters.
“There are reports that this initial wave of attacks in southern Lebanon has now ended, so we’re waiting to hear from the Israeli military to see whether or not they plan to carry out more strikes, which could, in turn, trigger a Hezbollah response and expand this conflict,” Khodr said.
“This is, and has been, a very dangerous conflict, even though largely contained, there is a real concern that it could expand and spiral out of control.”
‘Trying to avoid full-blown war’
The Israeli military stated that most of its attacks against Hezbollah are in southern Lebanon for now, but it will strike anywhere where there is a threat.
Global concern that Israel’s war will escalate into an all-out regional conflict multiplied after the assassination last month of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and of Shukr in Beirut – both blamed on Israel.
Israel’s strikes have “the potential to draw the whole region into the full-blown war”, Sami Nader, the director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
He said that while this signals a “major escalation in terms of scope of operation and intensity”, both Hezbollah and Israel “are trying to avoid full-blown war”.
Israel, he said, is “exhausted” by its war on Gaza, and the Lebanese group does not want to see a war similar to the one that occurred in 2006 as Lebanon is in a “serious economic crisis”.
Meanwhile, the United States said on Sunday it would “keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself”.
At President Joe Biden’s direction, “senior US officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts,” US National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.
Sunday’s attack came as Egypt hosted a new round of talks aimed at ending Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its 11th month. Hezbollah has said it will halt the fighting if there is a ceasefire.
No diplomatic settlement, however, appears to be taking form and “Israel is determined to change rules of engagement” that would allow a return of all Israelis who were evacuated from northern Israel, said Nader.
