Israel returns fire as border fight escalates
The militant Hezbollah group fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel on Friday, and Israel struck back with artillery in a significant escalation between the two sides.
It was the third day of attacks along the volatile border with Lebanon, a major Middle East flashpoint where tensions between Israel and Iran, which backs Hezbollah, occasionally play out.
Israel said it returned fired after 19 rockets were launched from Lebanon, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett swiftly convened a meeting with the country’s top defense officials. No casualties were reported.
“We do not wish to escalate to a full war, yet of course we are very prepared for that,” said Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.
Israel has long considered Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, its most serious and immediate military threat. Friday’s exchanges came a day after Israel’s defense minister warned that his country is prepared to strike Iran following a fatal drone attack on a oil tanker that Israel blamed on Tehran.
Sirens blared across the Golan Heights and Upper Galilee near the Lebanon border Friday. Hezbollah said in a statement that it hit “open fields” in the disputed Shebaa farms area.
The group said it fired 10 rockets, calling it retaliation for Israeli air strikes the day before. Israel said those strikes were in response to rocket fire from southern Lebanon in recent days that was not claimed by any group.