The Lebanese Hezbollah group launched a massive attack with more than 300 drones and rockets against Israel this morning as part of what it described as a ‘first phase’ of its retaliatory response to the recent assassination of Fouad Shukr, a senior member of the Shi’ite group. The attack came shortly after the Israeli military announced that it had launched a ‘pre-emptive air strike’ with dozens of fighter jets against southern Lebanon after detecting that an attack was being prepared against Israeli territory.
According to international media and agencies, Hezbollah announced in a statement that it had carried out ‘the first phase of our response to the assassination of Shukr has been successfully completed’. ‘The initial phase involved the targeting of Israeli barracks and sites to facilitate the passage of attack drones to their planned targets inside the Israeli entity. These drones have successfully reached their targets as planned.’
In total, the Shi’ite group claimed to have hit 11 Israeli military sites, including the Meron, Zaatoun, al-Sahl, Nafah, Yarden and Ein Zeitim bases, as well as the Kela, UF, Ramot Naftali, Neve Ziv and Zarura military camps, all in northern Israel.
The attack came shortly after Israel confirmed that it had launched a pre-emptive air strike in southern Lebanon early this morning to prevent Hezbollah from launching a massive attack it was preparing against targets in northern and central Israel. According to an Israeli military spokesman, the operation involved 100 fighter jets that attacked more than 40 targets in 17 areas and towns in southern Lebanon. ‘We have recently detected preparations by Hezbollah to launch rockets and missiles against Israel. As a result, we have struck to eliminate the threat,’ the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
As a result of the massive attack launched from Lebanon, Israeli authorities temporarily suspended all flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport. Israeli media confirmed that air raid alarms had sounded in several northern Israeli cities, where numerous witnesses recorded images of Hezbollah drones and rockets hitting Israeli territory. Meanwhile, Israel‘s defence minister Yoav Gallant declared a two-day state of emergency throughout the country.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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