Is the Middle East on the Brink of War? Hezbollah Unleashes Hundreds of Rockets on Israel as Israeli Jets Strike Back in Lebanon.H
The extent of damage was not immediately clear and Hezbollah indicated it was not planning further strikes yet, while Israel’s Foreign Minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war.
Any major escalation in the fighting, which began in parallel with the war in Gaza, risks morphing into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah’s backer Iran and Israel’s main ally the United States.
Sunday’s strikes came as negotiators were meeting in Cairo in a last-ditch effort to conclude a halt to the fighting in Gaza.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group said it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets towards Israel and hit 11 military targets in what it called the first phase of its retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander, last month.
Israel’s military said it had foiled a much larger attack with pre-emptive airstrikes after assessing that Hezbollah was preparing to launch the barrage, using 100 jets to strike more than 40 Hezbollah launch sites in southern Lebanon.
The strikes destroyed thousands of launcher barrels, aimed mostly at northern Israel but also targeting some central areas, Israel’s military said.
Hezbollah dismissed Israel’s statement that the group’s attack had been foiled with pre-emptive strikes, saying it had been able to launch its drones as planned and that the rest of its response to Shukr’s killing would take “some time”.
FLIGHTS BRIEFLY SUSPENDED
Israel’s cabinet met at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT). Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a state of emergency and Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel would respond to developments on the ground but did not seek a full-scale war.
Flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv were suspended for around 90 minutes.
“We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati met cabinet ministers at a session of the national emergency committee. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will speak on television later on Sunday, the group said.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and the U.N.’s special coordinator’s office in the country called on all sides to cease fire, calling the developments overnight “worrying”.
