Israeli aircraft attacked a military base and several Hezbollah structures in southern Lebanon this Thursday in response to several rocket launches towards the Israeli community of Margaliot.
"Israel Defense Forces fighter jets attacked a Hezbollah military base in the Ayta ash Shab area, as well as terrorist infrastructure in the Jabal Blat area," an Israeli military statement reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) indicated that the launches from Lebanon were not intercepted because they fell in open terrain, causing no damage.
The Lebanese group, supported by Iran, today claimed responsibility for four attacks towards Israel, three of them with rockets towards communities in northern Israel and a military base, and one with a missile that shot down an Israeli drone.
In the last days, Hezbollah launched volleys of dozens of rockets against Israel - more than 60 in a single afternoon - in an escalation that began in October. Israel this week attacked by air the Bekaa Valley, in northeastern Lebanon, where it claims that Hezbollah has its air defense system.
"We have eliminated more than 220 terrorists from Hezbollah and dozens of other Palestinian groups, in addition to having attacked some 4.000 Hezbollah military objectives: weapons warehouses, operational bases, strategic capabilities and posts of its elite Radwan force," the IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The risk of open armed confrontation is increasingly high and it has emerged this week that the United States fears that Israel will undertake a ground incursion into southern Lebanon at the end of spring, with the war in Gaza already in the final phase.
Agencies contributed to this Aurora article.