Hezbollah fires heavy rocket barrage at Kiryat Shmona after IDF strikes in Lebanon

By EMANUEL FABIAN 

Today, 11:23 pm

A barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon is intercepted by the Iron Dome over Kiryat Shmona, March 5, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

The Lebanese Hezbollah terror group fired a large barrage of rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Tuesday evening, in what it said was a response to a deadly Israel Defense Forces airstrike in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.

According to the IDF, some 30 rockets were fired at Kiryat Shmona, with at least 10 of the projectiles being successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.

One rocket struck the yard of a home in the nearby community of Kfar Blum, causing minor damage, local authorities said.

The remainder of the rockets hit open areas, and there were no reports of injuries.

Sirens sounded in Kiryat Shmona and several nearby communities.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the barrage, saying it was in response to an IDF strike in the southern Lebanon village of Houla, which killed three civilians according to the terror group and media reports.

In response, the IDF said fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launching position in southern Lebanon’s Taybeh, from which the terror group fired a barrage at Kiryat Shmona this evening.

Additionally, an anti-tank missile launch position in Aarab El Louaizeh, also used in attacks on Kiryat Shmona, was struck by an aircraft, the IDF says. Earlier, the IDF says it struck a building used by Hezbollah in Dibbine, and additional infrastructure in Ayta ash-Shab.

Earlier, the IDF said it had carried out strikes in Houla on Tuesday afternoon, targeting a building used by Hezbollah.

Strikes were also carried out against a Hezbollah compound in Ayta ash-Shab that the IDF said was used to fire two anti-tank missiles at the Biranit army base, a Hezbollah command center in Jabal al-Batam, rocket launching positions in Matmoura, and additional buildings used by the terror group in Majdal Zoun and Kafra, according to the IDF.

Those strikes came following an earlier Hezbollah barrage on Kiryat Shmona, which caused damage to a home and a store, and numerous missile and rocket attacks on IDF positions along the Lebanon border. There were no reports of injuries in the attacks.

Earlier Tuesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the United States special envoy to the region, Amos Hochstein, that Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel were bringing the country closer to a decision regarding military action in Lebanon.

“We are committed to the diplomatic process. However, Hezbollah’s aggression is bringing us closer to a critical point in the decision-making regarding our military activities in Lebanon,” Gallant said, according to a readout provided by his office.

Indirect talks on an end to the hostilities along the Lebanese-Israeli border were set to begin during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts next week, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday.

Mikati told local broadcaster Al Jadeed that Lebanese officials were studying a verbal proposal suggested by Hochstein, who was in Beirut on Monday to push a diplomatic solution to exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel.

During the meeting in Beirut, Hochstein said that a war between Israel and Hezbollah would not be containable, and added that the US was optimistic about restoring stability in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Israel has been bracing for war with Hezbollah since October 7, when its allied terror group Hamas started a war by launching an unprecedented attack on the south of Israel in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the northern border with rockets, missiles and drones on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists. Other attacks from Syria and Iraq have not caused any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 233 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 37 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.