Hassan Nasrallah meets Khalil al-Hayyeh, Hamas's second-in-command in Gaza, and Oussama Hamdan, Hamas's spokesperson in Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of Hezbollah press office)
Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday to have intensively targeted military sites in northern Israel, in response to an Israeli strike that killed a local commander of the party the previous day.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it had fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at the Meron military air control base in northern Israel, and had also targeted the Biranit barracks. The bombardment was in retaliation “for the assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in southern Lebanon” late on Tuesday evening, the statement added.
Alarm sirens sounded in Meron, according to the Israeli army, which, quoted by Haaretz, reported 60 rockets fired from Lebanon, causing “minor damage.”
Earlier in the morning, the Israeli army announced that it had “eliminated” a local Hezbollah commander, Hussein Makki, in an airstrike near the coastal city of Sour. Hezbollah confirmed the death of Makki, 55, from Beit Yahoun, without specifying his status. However, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that he was a “local commander” of the party.
Israel claimed that he was “responsible for the planning and implementation of numerous terrorist operations” against Israel. The drone strike targeted a vehicle in al-Haoush, a road south of Sour. Three missiles were fired at the vehicle, according to a security source quoted by L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent in the South. One person was killed and two others were wounded. The state-run National News Agency previously reported two deaths. A source close to Hezbollah told AFP on Wednesday that the strike had left one person dead and one wounded. This targeted strike came after the Israeli army announced that an Israeli civilian had been killed and five soldiers wounded in the north by a rocket fired from Lebanon.
Hamas too
In addition, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced early Wednesday evening that it had shelled the Israeli barracks of Liman from southern Lebanon, “with a salvo of rockets, in response to the continuing Zionist aggression and massacres against civilians in Gaza.”
According to a security source, one of the rockets missed its target and fell on a house in an agricultural area in Mansouri, south of Sour, wounding five Syrian nationals.
On the political front, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah met with a delegation from Hamas, including Khalil al-Hayyeh, the Palestinian movement's second-in-command in Gaza, and Osama Hamdan, its spokesman in Lebanon, according to a party press release, which did not mention the exact date or location of the meeting. They discussed the latest developments in Gaza and on the “various support fronts,” namely Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, according to the Hezbollah statement. The leaders also discussed “the latest negotiations [for a cease-fire in Gaza], international positions [on this subject] and student movements around the world” in support of Gaza.
In Israel, political and military officials continue to threaten war. “Soon we'll have to make a decision on how to get Israelis to return to their homes in the north, either through an agreement or through military action,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, quoted in Haaretz.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.