Hezbollah Retaliates with Missile Barrage in Response to Israeli Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - In retaliation for Israel's attacks on southern Lebanon a day earlier, Hezbollah said to have fired a barrage of rockets towards Israeli positions in occupied Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it hit “open fields” near Israeli positions at 11:15 a.m. local time Friday, using "dozens" of 122-caliber rockets.
Lebanon's Al Mayadeen television said at least 20 rockets were fired at Israel's military positions. Al-Minar TV said a number of the rockets targeted the Douf military base.
A Lebanese security source said the rockets were launched from the area of al-Arqoub, near the Lebanese town of Shebaa, PressTV reported.
Air raid sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee, and in the Golan Heights, part of the territory Israel occupied in 1967.
Israeli media said residents of settlements in the north of the occupied territories had been asked to stay in homes.
Following the retaliatory rocket attack, Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett and the regime’s minister of military affairs Benny Gantz held an emergency session amid reports of a massive number of sorties conducted by Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon.
According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military fired phosphorus bombs at Lebanese territories around the Kafr Shuba hills near the border, causing fire in nearby fields.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit areas in southern Lebanon with artillery fire.
The development came after Israeli jets struck what the regime's military claimed were rocket launch sites in Lebanon.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the Israeli airstrikes were the first targeting villages since 2006 and showed an escalation in its “aggressive intent” towards his country.
Aoun also said the strikes were a direct threat to the security and stability of southern Lebanon and violated UN Security Council resolutions.
