Hezbollah retaliated against Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Thursday with a significantly stepped up rocket and drone attacks for a second consecutive day, escalating a conflict that has raised fears of all-out war.
It is unclear how many weapons Hezbollah fired on Thursday, but the group's Al-Manar radio station reported that at one point more than 100 were fired in simultaneous, coordinated attacks on Israeli military facilities, including a drone strike at its military headquarters in northern Israel, Hezbollah said.
The Israeli army said in the afternoon that Hezbollah had fired more than 40 rockets across the border, but the barrage continued into the evening. Hours later, the army did not update its figures, but a military spokesman said it was the most serious attack since Israel's war with Hamas began in October. The spokesman did not immediately provide further details.
At least four people were wounded in Thursday's attack, according to the Israeli army and emergency services agency Magen David Adom. The army said in the afternoon that air defense forces had shot down many of the weapons fired by that point, but that some had made it in. The attacks and counterattacks sparked wildfires on both sides of the border.
On Thursday night, Arab media reported that Israeli military attacks had destroyed homes, killed several people and sparked fires in the town of Jannata, a few miles from the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre.
On Tuesday, an Israeli military strike targeted and killed Taleb Abdullah, a senior commander of Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed militant group and political faction that has vowed to step up attacks on Israel in retaliation.
Hezbollah fired more than 200 rockets into Israel on Wednesday, but caused minimal damage, according to the Israeli military.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that its warplanes had carried out overnight strikes on “Hezbollah military installations” in villages on the Lebanese border.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and Israeli retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah stepped up its attacks on Israel, which responded with artillery and air strikes on Lebanon, escalating the long-simmering conflict.
The near-daily attacks have forced more than 150,000 Israelis and Lebanese living near the border to flee their homes.
Israeli officials have warned of stronger action against Hezbollah and are facing growing pressure from the political right and displaced militants, but so far both sides have remained well short of all-out war.
Israel killed Abdullah in an attack in the southern Lebanese town of Juwaya on Tuesday night, accusing him of “planning, promoting and carrying out multiple terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The United States, France and other mediators have warned of the dangers of a regional war and have sought to foster a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah that could restore calm on both sides of the border, but analysts say an agreement is unlikely as long as Israel's eight-month-old military operation in Gaza continues.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 2006, each time defeating militant groups that launched attacks on Israel.
Jonathan Rice Contributed report.