HEZBOLLAH has launched a barrage of rocket attacks into Israel in retaliation for the targeted killing of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri.
The Iran-backed Lebanese terror group said it had fired 62 rockets – one of the largest such barrages in recent months – on Saturday targeting an IDF base.
Warning sirens rang across northern Israel notifications were pinged through alert apps about the incoming salvo of missiles.
The IDF said it identified dozens of incoming rockets – and later carried out waves of airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon as a response.
Israel confirmed no injuries have been reported as yet.
Hezbollah said the strike was “in the framework of the initial response to the assassination of the senior leader Saleh al-Arouri and his martyr brothers.”
Arouri was killed earlier this week in a surgical strike in Lebanon.
Lebanon‘s state-run National News Agency reported he died in an explosion caused by an attack on an apartment used as Hamas’ office.
Arouri was a senior official in Hamas’s politburo but was known to be deeply involved in its military affairs.
He was one of the founders of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – Hamas’ military wing – and headed the terrorist group’s presence in the West Bank.
The deputy leader was seen as Hamas’ prime orchestrator of terrorism in the West Bank – and was wanted by Israel for many years.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas bloodbath on October 7, which sparked the ongoing war.
Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack.
But it did insist the assassination should not be seen as an attack on Lebanon, as its enemies warned of “punishment” for his death.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the killing of al-Arouri will “not go unpunished”.
He also said there would be “no ceilings” and “no rules” to Hezbollah’s fighting if Israel launched attacks on Lebanon.
Earlier in in August, he had warned Israel against carrying out any assassinations on Lebanese soil, vowing a “severe reaction”.
Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas – and has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern border since the war began in Gaza.
Arouri had close links with Hezbollah who have condemned the death of the Hamas leader.
And his assassination in Hezbollah’s stronghold is being seen as a cause for an all-out war in Middle East.
Just days ago, Hezbollah leader Hussein Yazbek was killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon, the terrorist group confirmed.
Yazbek was killed amid a cross-border fire from Israel, it was understood.
The war against Hamas in Gaza has now engulfed a major part of Middle East – with Iran-backed Houthis, Lebanon, and Hezbollah turning up against Israel.
The UN has warned Israel of a potential all-out war in the region.
French president Emmanuel Macron told Israel to try all they can to avoid the war escalating outside of Gaza and spilling across the Middle East.
Macron told Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz that Israel should stop any escalation “particularly in Lebanon”, in a statement, according to reports.
Earlier this week, the US said it remains “incredibly concerned” about the risk of the conflict in Gaza broadening into a major regional conflict.
And now US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East amid the potential escalation of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
