Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Thursday fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine.
There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said.
The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack.
Photo: AP
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year, concerns have grown that near-daily clashes along the border between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into a full-scale war.
Airstrikes and rocket fire on Wednesday killed 16 Lebanese and one Israeli, making it the deadliest day of the current conflict.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that Israel had killed 30 Hezbollah militants in the past week and had destroyed dozens of Hezbollah military sites in an effort to push the group away from the border.
The recent increase in violence has raised alarm in Washington and at the UN.
“Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for [US] President [Joe] Biden and for the administration,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, adding that the US is closely monitoring developments.
“We’ve also been very, very clear: We do not support a war in Lebanon,” Kirby said.
Washington is working to halt the fighting through diplomatic efforts, he said.
This needs to be a top priority for Israel and Lebanon and would allow displaced civilians to return home, he said.
Tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled the fighting.
At about sunset on Thursday, a barrage of Katyusha and Burkan rockets was fired toward the Israeli villages of Goren and Shlomi, a statement from Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said that the group had not previously fired Burkan rockets at civilian targets, but was now responding to the recent spate of Israeli airstrikes.
Lebanon’s state media reported that 10 paramedics were among those killed on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it struck targets for Hezbollah and an allied Sunni Muslim group.
Hezbollah has frequently used Russian-made portable anti-tank Kornet missiles in the past few months.
More rarely, it has launched Burkan rockets, which, according to the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, can carry a warhead that weighs 300kg to 500kg.
Hezbollah said its attacks aim to keep some Israeli divisions busy and away from Gaza.
Nasrallah said that attacks on the border will only stop when Israel halts its offensive in Gaza.
General Charles Brown, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Thursday that he has discussed with Israeli counterparts that Israel does not need “to have a northern front that they have to deal with as they’re dealing with Gaza.”
He said he spoke with Lebanon’s chief of defense also, in an effort to do what the US can to “help bring down the temperature.”
A UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said it was imperative that “this escalation cease immediately.”
“We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,” it said.
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