Israel on Sunday pressed on with its campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, launching several deadly strikes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited his country’s northern border.
Netanyahu’s visit came after an air strike killed at least three people near the southern Lebanon city of Sidon, the Lebanese health ministry said, and as more bombs hit the country’s east.
“I want to be clear: with or without an agreement, the key to restoring peace and security in the north... is first and foremost to push Hezbollah back beyond the Litani River, secondly to target any attempt to rearm, and thirdly to respond firmly to any action taken against us,” Netanyahu told troops at the border, his office said in a statement.
Netanyahu’s border visit came as Israel’s military said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory on Sunday. Several were intercepted, and some fell in unpopulated areas.
Hezbollah later said it also fired a barrage of missiles at an Israeli air force “technical base” in the northern coastal city of Haifa.
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon have been at war since September 23, when Israel escalated cross-border air raids after a year of tit-for-tat exchanges of fire.
A week later it sent in ground troops on “targeted raids.”
Hezbollah said it was acting in support of Palestinian militants Hamas, whose unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 last year triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on Haret Saida resulted in an initial death toll of three people killed and nine others injured,” Lebanon’s health ministry said, referring to a densely populated area near Sidon.