The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah fired a “significant” rocket barrage at northern Israel on Tuesday morning. The Iranian proxy said the attack was a response to an Israeli strike the previous day in the Beqaa Valley which killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
According to Hezbollah, the barrage targeted the Israeli Air Force’s air control base on Mount Meron, which has been attacked multiple times since Hezbollah joined the war in support of Hamas a day after the Oct. 7 mass invasion of southern Israel.
The IDF later in the morning confirmed that 35 launches were identified in the direction of the Mount Meron area and that there were no injuries or damage to the Meron base.
The rockets set off air-raid sirens in Upper Galilee communities, with the Magen David Adom emergency medical services saying that they received no initial calls of injuries or damage.
Following the rocket attack, IAF fighter jets struck several areas in Southern Lebanon, including the areas of Hanniyeh, Jibchit, Baisariyeh and Mansouri, according to the military, which also said that artillery struck in the area of Yaroun “in order to remove a threat.”
Hezbollah continued to fire rockets and anti-tank missiles towards northern Israel throughout the day on Tuesday, bringing the total number of launches since Monday to 100, according to local reports.
In addition, air-raid alarms on Tuesday afternoon warned of a “suspicious aerial target” that penetrated the skies above the Upper Galilee and Meron region. An enemy drone was subsequently intercepted by the Israeli military, Ynet reported.
Tuesday’s Hezbollah attacks marked the second round of retaliatory strikes claimed by the terror group since the Israeli attack in the Baalbek area, about 42 miles northeast of Beirut. On Monday evening, the Hezbollah launched a volley of 60 rockets at the Golan Heights.
“In response to the Zionist aggression near the city of Baalbek,” Hezbollah targeted a military base in the Golan Heights “with 60 Katyusha rockets,” the terror group claimed in a statement.
On Monday night, the IDF said that fighter jets struck the source of the fire at the Golan Heights, hitting a launch site in the area of the village of Kawkaba in Southern Lebanon. The IDF also reported that fighter jets struck Hezbollah military compounds in the area of Ayta ash Shab. Earlier in the day, an IDF tank struck an additional Hezbollah military compound in Kfarkela.
Hezbollah said that two of its members were killed in the Israeli strike on Monday.
Fighter jets struck sites used by Hezbollah’s air defense array in the Beqaa Valley, “in response to the launch of surface-to-air missiles towards an unmanned aerial vehicle of the ‘Hermes 450’ type, that fell earlier today,” according to the IDF spokesperson.
The strikes were the deepest attack carried out by the IDF in Lebanese territory since the beginning of the war.
The IDF identified the terror operative targeted in the strike as Hassan Hossein Salami, the head of Hezbollah’s eastern command.
“Salami belongs to the Nasr unit of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and commanded recent terrorist activities against IDF forces and civilian and military targets in the north of the country,” tweeted IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
The Shi’ite terrorist organization took responsibility for downing the UAV, and the IDF later confirmed the incident.
According to the military, the David’s Sling medium-range air defense system intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired at the drone, which triggered air-raid sirens in the area of Alon Tavor in the Jezreel Valley region of northern Israel. However, a second enemy missile was then launched at the drone, downing it.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the drone was a Hermes 450, and that it was brought down over the Nabatieh area.
Made by Haifa-based Elbit Systems, the Hermes 450 is one of Israel’s largest and most sophisticated drones, with a wingspan of more than 34 feet and a maximum speed of 100-plus miles per hour.
