A Lebanese Army truck sits next to a crater caused by an explosion on the border with Israel near Mahmoudieh in southern Lebanon, which was targeted by Israeli strikes late Wednesday night. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah on Friday announced it retaliated for Israel’s late Wednesday night airstrikes in southern Lebanon with a rocket barrage aimed at the Shebaa Farms, Lebanese territory occupied by Israel.
Here’s what we know:
• Hezbollah announced in a terse statement that its fighters fired dozens of rockets at open areas in the vicinity of Israeli positions in the Shebaa Farms in response to Israel’s strikes on open areas outside Nabatieh and Sur overnight Wednesday.
• The group said the response was conducted by the “Martyr Ali Kamel Mohsen and Martyr Mohammad Tahan groups.” Mohsen, a Hezbollah fighter, was killed in a July 2020 Israeli airstrike in Syria, while Tahan was killed by Israeli troops on May 14, 2021, after crossing the border to protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
• Israel’s army announced that it was shelling the rocket launch sites in southern Lebanon. In the early afternoon, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported that the shelling had ceased.
• A Lebanese Army spokesperson confirmed to L’Orient Today that rockets were launched from southern Lebanon toward Palestine, adding that investigations were still underway to determine their launch site.
• An Israeli army spokesperson tweeted that over 10 rockets were fired, with most of them intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system, while others landed in open areas in the Shebaa Farms, Lebanese territory occupied by Israel.
• During the incident, the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon cautioned that the cross-border fire was “a very serious situation” and urged “all parties to cease fire.”
• In the early hours of Thursday, Israeli jets conducted airstrikes outside a village east of Nabatieh as well as outside the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp in Sur.
• The Israeli airstrikes, the first confirmed within Lebanese territory since February 2014, came after rockets were launched from Lebanon to Kiryat Shmona in northern Palestine.
• Prior to today’s border fire, rockets have been launched from Lebanon to Israel on five separate occasions since May 13, 2021. Hezbollah did not claim any of the prior launches.
• Hezbollah confirmed in a later statement that its fighters were confronted in the Hasbaya village of Shwaya today while returning from firing rockets across the border. Videos circulated on social media earlier showing angry residents intercepting a truck with a missile platform.
Update: This article has been updated to include UNIFIL’s statement, Hezbollah’s second statement and Al-Manar’s report that Israeli shelling had ceased.