Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday, heightening fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East. The group warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel’s killing of a top commander last week was still forthcoming.
Hezbollah reported launching a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel and attacking an Israeli military vehicle in another location. The Israeli military confirmed identifying several hostile drones crossing from Lebanon, intercepting one. The attacks injured several civilians south of the coastal city of Nahariya. Reuters TV footage showed one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.
The Israeli military also noted that sirens sounded around Acre, but this was later deemed a false alarm. In response, the Israeli air force struck two Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon.
The escalating violence follows vows by Hezbollah to avenge the killing of its commander Fuad Shukr, and Iran’s promise to respond to the assassination of the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Tehran last week. A Hezbollah source told Reuters, “the response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr has not yet come.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, located nearly 30 km north of the border, resulted in the deaths of four people, according to medics and a security source. Two additional security sources indicated that those killed were Hezbollah fighters, though the group has yet to confirm this with its usual death notices.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for the last ten months, in parallel with the Gaza war, with most strikes limited to the border area. Last week, Israel killed Shukr, Hezbollah’s senior-most military commander, in a strike on the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed revenge but emphasized that the response would be “studied.” He is scheduled to speak on Tuesday at the one-week memorial for Shukr. As tensions rise, the region remains on edge, with many fearing a potential escalation into full-blown war.