Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Tuesday (August 6) launched a series of drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel. Last week, Israel killed a senior commander of the radical group and Hezbollah vowed that their retaliatory action was yet to come.
Earlier that day, Israel targeted two Hezbollah facilities, resulting in the death of four individuals.
Hezbollah reportedly stated that they launched a group of attack drones towards two military bases near Acre in northern Israel and targeted an Israeli military vehicle at another location.
The Israeli military stated that they detected multiple enemy drones flying from Lebanon into Israeli airspace and intercepted one of them.
Israeli medical officials mentioned that seven people were taken to a hospital in the southern coastal city of Nahariya, with one individual in critical condition.
According to the Israeli military, initial investigations indicated that the injuries were caused by an intercept missile that “missed its target, hitting the ground and injuring several civilians”. The military stated that the incident is still under investigation.
Television footage captured by Reuters showed an impact point near a bus station located on a main road on the outskirts of Nahariya.
In a statement, the Israeli military mentioned that alarms sounded near Acre, but the alert turned out to be a false alarm. They added that their air force earlier attacked two Hezbollah facilities in southern Lebanon, with the Ministry of Health in Lebanon reporting four casualties. Medical personnel and a security source informed Reuters that the four individuals were Hezbollah militants.
Last Tuesday, in response to an attack on an Israeli football field resulting in the deaths of 12 children and teenagers, Israel bombed a Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing the organization’s highest ranking military commander Fuad Shukr.
Just hours after Shukr’s death, Hamas leader and main orchestrator of the October 7th attack on Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, was also killed in an attack in Tehran, Iran. He had just attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president.
These series of events have escalated tensions in the Middle East region. Hezbollah vowed to avenge Shukr, and Iran declared to retaliate for Haniyeh’s assassination in the country, raising concerns that the Middle East could descend into a full-scale war.
A Hezbollah source told Reuters, “The response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr is yet to come.”