A day after Israel eliminated one of Hezbollah’s top terror commander in southern Lebanon, the Iran-backed terrorist group has intensified rocket and drone attacks aimed at cities across northern Israel.
On early Thursday, Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets and 20 drones towards the Galilee and the Golan areas. “Following the sirens that sounded earlier today in northern Israel, approximately 200 projectiles and over 20 suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, a number of which were intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense Array and IAF fighter jets,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a press statement Thursday morning.
The Israeli Air Force responded by hitting “Hezbollah military structures in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla in southern Lebanon,” the IDF added.
The Thursday’s barrage was one of the most intense since Hezbollah renewed hostilities in the wake of the October 7 attack. “In one of the most intense attacks by the Lebanese terror group of the war, [Hezbollah] also fired on cities like Acre and Nahariya, which have generally been left off of its target list, beyond cities like Kiryat Shmona, which have been attacked almost non-stop.” the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.
The aerial attack comes after an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday took out Muhammad Neamah Naser, who according to Israeli news website Ynet was “one of the terrorist group’s most senior commanders eliminated since the outbreak of the war” on October 7. Naser’s terrorist Aziz Unit is largely responsible for the relentless cross-border rocket fire that has forced more than 60,000 Israeli civilians to evacuate their homes since October 7.
The Times of Israel reported the intensified Hezbollah attacks:
The IDF reports in an update that Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets and 20 drones from Lebanon at northern Israel in the terror group’s major attack earlier.It says that some of the rockets and drones were shot down by air defense and fighter jets.In response, fighter jets struck several Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon’s Ramyeh and Houla, it adds.The IDF publishes footage of some of the strikes in Lebanon and some of the interceptions.
The rocket from Lebanon hit Israeli towns and cities as Hezbollah, and its terrorist paymaster Iran, renew their threats to launch as full-scale war on Israel.
As the Israeli ground offensive in Rafah approaches its third month, the IDF is moving ahead after capturing around 70 percent of the Hamas terror stronghold.
“The IDF is continuing targeted, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area. In one incident, a number of armed terrorists who were operating and posed a threat to IDF forces in the area were eliminated in an aircraft strike,” the military disclosed in a press release Thursday.
The IDF is also conducting a large-scale raid in Shejaiya neighbourhood of northern Gaza. The area was being used by Hamas to rally its remaining forces and recruit new jihad fighters, mostly teenage boys, for its terrorist campaign against the Israeli ground forces.
“IDF operational activity continues below and above the ground in the area of Shejaiya,” the military said. “Over the past day, IDF troops destroyed tunnels routes in the area and eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat, with tank fire, and in aerial strikes. In one incident, IDF troops eliminated seven terrorists at close quarters.”
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