Israel launched a series of airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday morning to prevent an imminent Hezbollah drone and rocket strike.
In response, Hezbollah fired more than 320 Katyusha rockets from Lebanon towards Israeli territory. Hezbollah stated that it initiated the strike in response to the killing of its military commander, Fuad Shukr in Beirut in July.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets have been deployed to neutralise these threats, focusing on Hezbollah positions that posed an immediate danger to Israeli civilians.
An Israeli military statement said that approximately 100 IAF fighter jets stuck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels that were located and embedded in southern Lebanon.
The army also gave an ultimatum to residents in southern Lebanon to “leave immediately.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire almost daily since the Israel started an air and ground war in Gaza on October 7, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border and edging the region closer to a regional war.
The US has said it would keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself as the Israeli military announced it was conducting strikes in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has said it had completed the “first phase” of its response to Israel’s killing of the group’s top commander in a strike on a Beirut suburb last month.
Hezbollah added that it had hit 11 Israeli military sites, fired more than 320 rockets and sent drones flying into northern Israel.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has announced a 48-hour nationwide state of emergency from Sunday morning after the Israeli military launched what it called pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon.
At least 63 Palestinians have been killed and several others wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes targeting various areas of besieged Gaza.
Thousands of protesters have demonstrated in several Israeli cities, demanding an immediate hostage swap deal with Palestinian resistance factions in besieged Gaza.
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