FALCON POWERS – The Lebanese Hezbollah group unleashed a barrage of rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed a senior field commander of the group, further escalating tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah group and Israel have exchanged fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October, with a continuous escalation in hostilities that has raised fears of a larger confrontation between the two sides. Three security sources said an Israeli airstrike on the village of Joya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three fighters and a senior Hezbollah field commander known as Hajj Abu Talib.
One of the sources said Abu Talib was the highest-ranking Hezbollah member killed in the clashes between the group and Israel. The sources said he was the commander of the group in the central sector of the southern border strip. His funeral is scheduled for later Wednesday.
A Lebanese security source said Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets in retaliation for the raid, describing it as one of the largest rocket attacks the group has carried out since the clashes began in October.
Hezbollah said it carried out at least four attacks, including a guided missile strike on an Israeli military industrial facility, in retaliation for what it called an assassination operation carried out by Israel in Joya.
The group also said it attacked Israeli military positions in Ayn Zetoun and Amiad, and an Israeli military aerial surveillance unit at the Miron base, firing dozens of Katyusha rockets in each case.
