Eighteen Israelis have been injured, one critically, after the Iranian backed Hezbollah militia fired anti-tank missiles from southern Lebanon in a further sign that the skirmishes along the border are steadily escalating.
Several vehicles near the northern community of Dovev were hit in the missile strike, whose victims included Israel Electric Corporation employees who had arrived to repair power lines damaged by previous fire from Lebanon. Hezbollah sources had claimed they were soldiers, an assertion denied by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Magen David Adom emergency service said one of the civilians injured in the attack was in a critical condition.
Israel’s chief military spokesperson, R Adm Daniel Hagari, said the IDF was “at a very high state of readiness in the north” and that “Lebanon’s citizens will bear the cost of this recklessness”.
In a day of sporadic missile and droneexchanges, Israel also targeted two Hezbollah units that launched mortars from Lebanon at areas near the communities of Manara and Yir’on. Seven soldiers were lightly wounded in the Manara incident and taken to hospital, the army said.
Hezbollah-linked media reported that Israeli artillery targeted the town of Labbouneh and that sirens sounded at the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) centre in Naqoura.
The rightwing Israeli newspaper Maariv reported on Sunday that the IDF was preparing to deal a “strong blow” to Hezbollah in response to the escalation of its attacks. Israeli fire has killed at least 70 Hezbollah fighters since the start of hostilities.
An Israeli army spokesperson later said that a fighter jet and other aircraft attacked several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including “a military compound containing a warehouse of weapons and military infrastructure”.
Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Saturday that his group was using new weapons including attack drones “for the first time in the history of the resistance” in Lebanon.
Nasrallah’s speech prompted a warning from Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who said Lebanese citizens would “pay the price” and added: “What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”
Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, praised Hezbollah for its “patriotism” and said he had drawn up a three-month contingency plan in the even of a full war breaking out involving Lebanon.
“Caution is still being exercised and we hope that the contacts will lead to a cessation of Israeli attacks in the south of the country,” he said.
“Hezbollah behaves very patriotically and I trust the rationality of this movement. What matters most to me is keeping Lebanon far from war. We have always sought stability.”
An Israeli military spokesperson said: “At a time the Lebanese premier has said that he is reassured over the rationality of Hezbollah’s actions, the saboteurs of the terrorist party fired anti-tank shells at Israeli civilians from the electricity company, wounding several of them.
“This is a terrorist, irrational attack that targeted civilians and is risking Lebanon as a state. I believe that the Lebanese premier should not be reassured over the rationality of Hezbollah’s actions.”
Meanwhile, in Iraq, rockets were fired at a military base on the outskirts of Baghdadused by members of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces.
It was unclear who launched the attack, but there was speculation it was launched as retaliation to attacks by pro-Iran factions on American troops in Iraq.
In Syria, flights to and from the government-ruled areas were diverted to Bassel al-Assad after Israeli airstrikes hit airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
Sources told Asharq News that the government was likely to have completed repairing the two airports but did not want to resume operations so that Israel would not strike them again.
