Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it destroyed “thousands” of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket barrage of its own.
The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war which began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.
The Israeli military said around 100 of its fighter jets had struck more than 270 targets, “90 percent” of which “were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel.”
Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation “was completed and accomplished.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were “not the final word” in the campaign against Hezbollah.
A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat and two more wounded, the military said, with an official telling AFP their boat may have been hit by one of their own side’s air-defense interceptors.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in what Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.
But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July, blamed on Israel, killed Iran-aligned militant leaders including the Hamas political chief and a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, which prompted vows of revenge.
Britain and Jordan were among those to appeal on Sunday for an end to the escalation and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also called for the UN Security Council to take “deterrent” and “effective” measures against Netanyahu and his ministers who “kill all chances of achieving peace.”
Hezbollah said its militants launched “a large number of drones” and “more than 320” Katyusha rockets targeting “enemy positions” across the border.
The group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah named the “main target” as the Glilot military intelligence base near Tel Aviv, which Israeli media reported is home to the headquarters of the Mossad spy agency.
Israel’s military said there were “no hits” on the base.
A secondary target, said Nasrallah, was Ein Shemer, a military airport used by Israeli drones.
He also appeared to suggest Hezbollah’s retaliation for Shukr’s killing was over, saying “if the result is satisfactory” then its response “has been accomplished.”
An AFP photographer in Acre, an Israeli city 20 kilometers from the border, reported damage to three homes from a Hezbollah rocket that struck a roof, with shrapnel smashing windows and destroying a bed.
“There were explosions in the area of Haifa,” said Abigail Levy, a resident of the coastal city further south. “I was stopped and was told not to go to the beach.”
AFPTV footage from early Sunday showed dozens of interceptor rockets being launched into dense clouds above the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.