Israel fires on Lebanon after rocket attack in heaviest exchange since truce with Hezbollah
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it instructed the army to respond forcefully against dozens of targets in Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah is based. Israel's army said six rockets were fired toward Metula, a town along the border with Lebanon. Three crossed into Israel and were intercepted.
The army said it «cannot confirm the identity of the organisation that fired the rockets.» It said it struck Hezbollah command centres and dozens of rocket launchers.
An Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese village of Touline killed five people, including a child, and wounded 10 others, including two children, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.
Another Israeli strike Saturday night hit a garage in the coastal city of Tyre, the NNA reported, with one person killed and seven wounded. It was the first attack on the city since the ceasefire took effect November 27. And a strike on Hawsh al-Sayed Ali village along the border with Syria wounded five people, according to the NNA.
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In a statement, Lebanon's prime minister, Nawaf Salam, asked the country's military to take all necessary measures in the south, but said the country does not want to return to war.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into all-out war in September as Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group's senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.
Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January under the ceasefire deal. The
