
(PatriotWise.com) – Hezbollah launched a wave of attacks on northern Israel last Thursday after the Israeli airstrike on July 3 killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had intercepted multiple rockets and drones launched from southern Lebanon on July 4, causing some fires to erupt from falling debris. While the IDF reported no casualties in last Thursday’s attacks, the military did confirm that it retaliated by striking Hezbollah’s “launch posts in southern Lebanon.”
The IDF confirmed on July 3 that it had taken out Mohammad Neameh Naser, who commanded Hezbollah’s Aziz Unit.
According to the IDF, Naser led Hezbollah’s rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on both military and civilian targets in northern Israel.
Hezbollah has escalated its attacks on northern Israel since the war in Gaza began. The Iranian-backed terrorist group has vowed that it would continue attacking Israel in the north until it agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hezbollah’s rocket and drone attacks have killed at least 27 Israelis since October, including 10 civilians. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported in late June that at least 435 people have been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes.
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-funded pro-Hamas outlet, has claimed that Israeli strikes have killed roughly 90 civilians in Lebanon.
The clashes between Hezbollah and Hamas since last fall also forced tens of thousands of civilians in northern Israel and southern Lebanon to evacuate the region.
US officials, fearful that the escalating clashes could potentially turn into a full-scale war that could draw Iran and its proxies into the conflict, have been working behind the scenes to prevent the war from spilling into the north.
Administration officials also fear that a war with Hezbollah could prompt it and other Iranian proxy groups to step up attacks on US forces throughout the Middle East. Already, US forces have faced attacks by Iranian-backed groups in the region, including a drone strike on a US base in Jordan earlier this year that killed three US service members.
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