Hezbollah fired a barrage of missiles and other projectiles into Israel Sunday in response to deadly IDF strikes on the militant group’s command centers in Beirut.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles Sunday, with some intercepted – marking one of the militant group’s heaviest barrages in months. Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest, Lebanon’s military said. The Israeli military said the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military’s operations are directed solely against the militants.
Israeli airstrikes also pounded central Beirut on Saturday, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel’s military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence.
Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.
Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.
On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.
Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon’s military has largely kept to the sidelines.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a ‘direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts’ to end the war.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.