The explosion in Adloun, after an Israeli strike on an arms depot belonging to Hezbollah, on July 20, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
Hezbollah on Sunday announced its first retaliatory attack for Israeli strikes Saturday night that targeted an arms depot in Adloun (Saida). The party claims to have targeted the Israeli town of Dafna, near the Upper Galilee region, with Katyusha rockets. Dafna lies across the border from Houla (Marjayoun).
Israeli strikes targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in Adloun, a coastal town in southern Lebanon between Saida and Sour, late Saturday evening, three security sources told Reuters. The bombardment of a village some 40 kilometers from the Blue Line triggered a series of explosions heard by witnesses throughout the south.
According to local residents who spoke to L'Orient-Le Jour, Hezbollah fighter Mustafa Hassan Fawaz was killed in the strikes. Hezbollah announced Fawaz's death on Sunday, saying he was born in 1975 in the town of Debaal (Sour district) and “was martyred on the path to Jerusalem.” His death brings to to 376 the total number of party members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8.
Fawaz was reportedly killed in the Israeli strike on Adloun (Saida district) last night, residents of the town told L’Orient Today. This raises the total death toll of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon and Syria since Oct. 8 to 376.
Rescue workers encountered great difficulty reaching the scene because of the shrapnel and debris thrown up by the explosions and, according to a source familiar with the firefighting operations contacted by our local correspondent Muntasser Abdallah, three fire-fighters were injured.
A medical source told L'Orient-Le Jour that four people suffered from asphyxiation as a result of the smoke rising from the scene and the surrounding area.
The highway linking Saida to Sour was closed in both directions by the army until 1 a.m. to prevent local residents from approaching the site of the strike. The municipality of Kharayeb, which neighbors Adloun, where at least three residents narrowly escaped metal debris landing close to where they were, called on local residents to stay in their homes. In Ansariyeh, two houses were damaged. In addition to the debris that landed in other nearby localities, such as Ansar and Loubiyeh, a missile also fell without exploding in Burj Rahhal (Sour district) and the military engineering unit was mobilized to attend the scene.
Two injured in northern Israel
This latest Israeli blow to Hezbollah follows the bombing Israel claimed on Thursday evening of a "headquarters of the elite al-Radwan force" in Jmaijmeh, in southern Lebanon. The strike killed two Hezbollah members and injured 19 civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire on an almost daily basis since the opening of a front in southern Lebanon on Oct. 8 in "solidarity" with Gaza after war erupted in the enclave the previous day following a Hamas attack on Israel that left around 1,200 Israelis dead. After the Israeli strike on Jmaijmeh, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted new towns in northern Israel, warning that this would be the case from now on whenever the Israeli army attacked civilian targets in Lebanon.
On Saturday evening, after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a strike "with a squadron of exploding drones" on artillery positions and missile launchers at the Israeli site of Za'oura, "hitting Iron Dome platforms and soldiers and officers," the Israeli army announced that two soldiers had been wounded.
In addition to the strike on Adloun, the evening in southern Lebanon was marked by Israeli artillery fire on Khiam and an airstrike on Mjadel, which caused several injuries, according to a security source and a statement from the first-aid workers attached to the Amal Movement-affiliated al-Risala Scouts.
These attacks and the strike on Adloun took place on the same day that Israeli fighter jets attacked Houthi "military targets" in the area of the port city of Hodeida in Yemen, which Hezbollah described as a "dangerous new phase" in the conflict. Israel launched the strikes in Yemen a day after a drone launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis hit Tel Aviv and killed one person.