Israel launches “massive” strikes on Lebanon after missiles landed on a military base

Four people were killed in a “massive wave” of Israeli air strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah rocket fire killed a soldier in Israel.

Official media and security sources said that a woman and two children were killed in the town of Al-Sawwaneh in southern Lebanon.

A man who Hezbollah said was one of its fighters was killed in Adashit.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on its base in the northern Israeli town of Safed.

Hezbollah fighters have exchanged fire with Israeli forces almost every day along the border since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip in October.

The clashes raised fears of a broader regional conflict.

On Wednesday morning, sirens sounded across northern Israel as a barrage of rockets were fired towards the border towns of Neta and Manara and the town of Safed, which is located 14 kilometers south of the border.

Israeli media and emergency services said that an Israeli soldier was killed and seven others were injured after their base in Safed was subjected to a missile attack. The soldier who died was later identified as Sergeant Omar Sara Bingo.

A video clip showed another missile landing near the gate of Safad Hospital.

Hezbollah later claimed that it had attacked an “enemy position” in Safed “in support of the people and resistance of Gaza, which is being subjected to brutal Zionist aggression with an American green light.”

In the afternoon, the IDF announced that fighter jets “bombed a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets” in Al-Sawwanah, Adshit, Jabal Al-Bureij, Kafr Huna, and Kafr Donin in response to the rocket fire.

“Among the targets struck were military complexes, operations control rooms and terrorist infrastructure,” he added, adding that many of the targets belonged to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, whose well-trained members are considered the party’s special forces.

The National News Agency in Lebanon said that a raid on a house in Al-Sawwaneh resulted in the killing of a Syrian woman named Rawaa Al-Mohammad and her two sons, Hassan Mohsen (13 years old) and Amir Mohsen (2 years old).

Video from the town showed residents inspecting the rubble of at least one destroyed building and the wreckage of a burned-out car.

The National News Agency also reported that a man was killed and 10 others were injured in Adshit. It stated that the dead man was named Hassan Ali Najm, a Hezbollah fighter, and the group confirmed his death in a statement on Telegram.

Israeli government spokeswoman Ilana Stein told Reuters news agency: “As we have repeatedly made clear, Israel is not interested in war on two fronts. But if it is provoked, we will respond forcefully.”

“The current reality, where tens of thousands of Israelis are displaced [in the north] They cannot return to their homes, which is unbearable. They must be able to return to their homes and live in peace and security.”

Meanwhile, IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevy, told the northern mayors: “There are great achievements in striking Hezbollah in Lebanon, but we continue to work – and this is not the time to stop.

“We are intensifying strikes all the time, and Hezbollah is paying an increasingly heavy price.”

On Tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israeli leaders in a speech that waging war against the group would lead to the “evacuation of a million people” from northern Israel.

“To those who threaten us with expanding the war: If you expand it, we will do so too,” he said, adding that “those who think the resistance might be afraid are very mistaken.”

He also pledged that Hezbollah would not cease fire except “when the aggression stops and there is a ceasefire in Gaza.”