Hizbullah rocket attack on Israel draws retaliation

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hizbullah fired a volley of rockets at Israeli positions on Friday, prompting retaliatory shelling, in an escalation between the Iran-backed movement and the Jewish state.

A flare-up along the border this week has seen Israel carry out its first air strikes on Lebanese territory in seven years and Hizbullah claim a direct rocket attack on Israeli territory for the first time since 2019.

The exchanges coincide with rising tensions between Iran and Israel since a deadly attack on an Israeli-managed tanker in the Gulf of Oman last week. Following Friday morning’s exchange Israel said it did "not wish to escalate to a full war", as the United Nations peacekeeping force in the border region, UNIFIL, warned of "a very dangerous situation" and called on parties to "cease fire and maintain calm".

Hizbullah said it fired dozens of rockets at open ground near Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district. It said the attack came in response to Israeli air strikes on south Lebanon on Thursday that were the first since 2014. An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon said he heard several explosions and saw smoke rising from around the Shebaa Farms.

Israel said 19 rockets were fired, six of which hit Israeli ground. Three fell short while the others were intercepted by air defences, it said. The Israeli military released a video of multiple vapour trails in the skies, and said it was "striking the launch sources in Lebanon" but did not elaborate.

UNIFIL reported an "artillery response from Israel in the Shebaa Farms area", following the Hezbollah rocket attack. An AFP correspondent in south Lebanon reported artillery fire by Israeli forces on the Shebaa Farms and outside the town of Kfarchouba.

The Shebaa Farms district is claimed by Lebanon but the UN regards it as part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.

Israeli army spokesman, Amnon Shefler, played down the prospects of all-out war with Hizbullah. "We believe that neither Hizbullah wants a full-out war, and we definitely do not wish to have a war," he said after Friday’s exchange.

"Yet of course we are very prepared for that." He said life continued as normal on the Israeli side of the border. Hizbullah’s deputy head, Naeem Qassem, said the group was committed to responding to any attack on Lebanon. But "we do not believe things are headed towards an escalation, though Hizbullah is prepared" if needed, he added. In the south Lebanon district of Hasbaya, Druze villagers earlier stopped a truck carrying a multiple rocket launcher used by Hizbullah in Friday’s attack, a military source said.