Hezbollah strikes Israel in latest escalation of cross-border conflict

Hezbollah has said its campaign will stop only when Israel halts its offensive on the Gaza Strip, where more than 28,000 people have been killed according to health authorities in Gaza.

Israeli police and explosive experts are inspecting damage from Lebanese rockets. Source: AAP / Atef Safadi

Key Points

• Hezbollah says it has fired dozens of rockets at Israel in response to the killing of 10 civilians in Lebanon.
• This marks an escalation in the tit-for-tat strikes between Hezbollah and Israel.
• Hezbollah has been waging near daily attacks on Israeli since its ally Hamas stormed Israel from Gaza on 7 October.

Hezbollah says it has fired dozens of rockets at a northern Israeli town in a "preliminary response" to the killing of 10 civilians in southern Lebanon, the deadliest day for Lebanese civilians in four months of cross-border hostilities.

The United Nations urged a halt to what it called a "dangerous escalation" of the conflict, which has played out in parallel to the Gaza war and fuelled concerns of a wider confrontation between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

The Israeli military said it had killed a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan unit, his commander and another operative in a "precise air strike" in Nabatieh, without mentioning the civilian deaths.

Hezbollah said three of its fighters had been killed but did not identify any as commanders, which it has done in the past.

Seven of the civilians were killed in Nabatieh when a rare Israeli strike on the southern city hit a multi-storey building, sources in Lebanon said. The dead were from the same extended family, and included three children.

It followed an earlier attack that killed a woman and two children in the village of al-Sawana at the border, who were buried on Thursday.

Jalal Mohsin carries the body of his child Amir, who was killed in an Israeli strike last night, during his funeral procession in Qantara village, south Lebanon, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. Source: AAP / Mohammed Zaatari

The bodies of the children, wrapped in green shrouds, were so small they each fit on two plastic chairs as people came to pay respects. Their father held them tight before they were buried as another man sobbed on his shoulder.

"The enemy will pay the price for these crimes," Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah told Reuters, saying Hezbollah had a "legitimate right to defend its people".

Mohanad Hage Ali, of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, said that while Israel appeared to be "testing the limits" of those rules of engagement, Hezbollah was signalling it "wants to keep this as confined as possible".

Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman said Israel's "message to Hezbollah has been and always will be: 'Don't try us'. As Defence Minister Gallant said at the beginning of the war, we will copy and paste what we've done in Gaza to Hamas, in Lebanon," he said.

Both sides have said they do not seek all-out war.

Hezbollah has been waging near daily attacks on Israeli targets at the border since its Palestinian ally Hamas stormed Israel from Gaza on 7 October killing 1200 people and abducting some 250, according to Israeli tallies.

Hezbollah has said its campaign will stop only when Israel halts its offensive on the Gaza Strip, where more than 28,000 people have been killed according to health authorities in Gaza.

The violence has killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and five Israeli civilians, as well as uprooting tens of thousands on both sides.