Hezbollah launches rocket attacks on Israel in response to airstrike

BEIRUT: Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced on Thursday that it targeted Israeli sites with rockets in response to an airstrike on southern Lebanon that killed four Syrians.

“In response to the attack that targeted Chamaa and the martyrdom of several civilians, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombed today enemy army sites in western Galilee and the settlement of Matzuva with dozens of Katyusha rockets,” it said in a statement.

Hezbollah added that it also attacked the Jal al-Alam site with rockets.

Lebanese military sources told Xinhua that the Lebanese army monitored the launching of about 70 surface-to-surface rockets in two separate batches from the Lebanese side into Israel, and some of them were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system.

The source noted that the Israeli army shelled and launched several air raids on several towns and villages in southern Lebanon, killing four Syrians and injuring four Lebanese civilians.

The latest attacks came amid rising tensions between Hezbollah and Israel following Tuesday’s Israeli attack on Dahieh in Beirut’s southern suburbs, killing Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fouad Shokor. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli attack at the appropriate time and place. (Xinhua)