The armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas said on Wednesday that it had fired dozens of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel as violence increased between Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
• Also read: According to Hamas, nearly 30,000 people have died in Gaza in five months
• Also read: Hezbollah announces that it has fired a new volley of rockets at an Israeli base
Since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah and allied groups have targeted the Israeli army, which responded by bombing Lebanon.
In a statement, the al-Qassam Brigades claimed to have fired two salvos of Grad rockets at two military sites in northern Israel.
These attacks came “in response to the Zionist massacres of civilians in the Gaza Strip and the assassination” of a senior Hamas official in Lebanon on January 2, the statement added.
Saleh Arouri was killed along with six other Hamas members in an Israeli drone strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.
On February 10, a Hamas official was injured in a drone strike on his car about 40 km north of the Israel-Lebanese border.
The Israeli army reported fire from Lebanon into northern Israel on Wednesday, saying anti-aircraft defenses intercepted “a number” of projectiles and responded to the sources of fire.
The Israeli police, for their part, reported the impact of rocket fragments in the border town of Kyriat Shmona and reported damage to property.
On Tuesday, pro-Iranian Hezbollah twice bombed an Israeli military base in response to unprecedented attacks by Israeli aircraft on eastern Lebanon the day before.
The UN special coordinator in Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, had called for “an immediate end to this dangerous cycle of violence”.
For its part, the United States called for promoting diplomacy to resolve tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.
At least 284 people, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and allied groups, and around 44 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count.
According to the army, ten soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.