Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in reprisal for deadly day
- The group called the attack a ‘preliminary response’ to the killing of 10 civilians in Lebanon, amid fears that the Gaza war will erupt into a wider conflict
- Israel’s military says its ‘precise air strike’ killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, his commander and another operative
Hezbollah said on Thursday it fired dozens of rockets at a northern Israeli town in a “preliminary response” to the killing of 10 civilians in southern Lebanon, the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of cross-border hostilities.
The United Nations urged a halt to what it called a “dangerous escalation” of the conflict, which has played out in parallel to the Gaza war and fuelled concerns of a wider confrontation between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
The Israeli military said it had killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit, his commander and another operative in a “precise air strike” in Nabatieh on Wednesday, without mentioning the civilian deaths.
Hezbollah said three of its fighters had been killed but did not identify any as commanders, which it has done in the past.
Seven of the civilians were killed in Nabatieh late on Wednesday when a rare Israeli strike on the southern city hit a multistorey building, sources in Lebanon said. The dead were from the same extended family, and included three children.