The Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon fired a barrage of dozens of rockets into Israel on Saturday in a move it called “an initial response” to the alleged Israeli killing of Hamas terror chief Saleh al-Arouri in Lebanon last week. There were no reports of injuries.
The Israel Defense Forces said that some 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon at the Mount Meron area of northern Israel. Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli military installation in the area with 62 “various types of missiles.”
The Iran-backed terror group said in a statement that the attack was “part of the initial response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri.”
The rocket salvo triggered incoming rocket and drone alerts in 90 communities across northern Israel, but the IDF said only the Mount Meron area was targeted.
Video circulating on social media appears to show smoke in a number of areas in the national park.
It is unclear if the smoke was caused by impacts or interceptions.
An hour later, sirens were again triggered in 40 communities in northern Israel. Several more projectiles were fired by Hezbollah at the Metula and Margaliot areas on the border.
The army said it struck a terror cell in southern Lebanon, responsible for some of the rocket launches.
In a later statement, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes on a series of Hezbollah sites in Lebanon in response to the attacks on northern Israel.
The targets in Ayta ash-Shab, Yaroun, and Ramyah included rocket launch positions, military sites, and other infrastructure used by the terror group, according to the IDF.
The IDF says a drone struck the cell behind the attack on Metula.
The barrage, one of the largest since the start of skirmishes on the northern border linked to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, came a day after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened that Israel’s northern residents would be “the first to pay the price if a full-scale war were to erupt” along the front.
Nasrallah also used the address to repeat many of the same threats against Israel that he made earlier this week, again vowing to avenge deputy Hamas chief Arouri’s killing in Beirut while remaining vague on the specifics.
Nasrallah said that all of Lebanon would be exposed to further Israeli strikes if the group did not react to the assassination of Arouri in Beirut, allegedly carried out by Israel.
“The response is coming. The decision has already been made. The matter now depends on what will unfold on the ground and on Allah,” Nasrallah said.
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