20 rockets fired from Lebanon target northern Israel: Local media

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Some 20 rockets and three drones were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel, igniting a fire at a targeted area, Israeli media reported on Monday.

The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said combat drones fired from Lebanon caused a fire in the Eilat HaShahar in northern Israel.

The Hebrew news website 0404 noted that the Israeli defenses intercepted two drones that were fired towards the Western Galilee area in northern Israel.

Hezbollah announced earlier that its fighters targeted spy equipment at the Israeli army's Ramia site. While the Israeli army carried out a limited artillery shelling on several areas in southern Lebanon.

On Sunday, Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon, the most severe attack since cross-border attacks between Tel Aviv and Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the attacks aimed to prevent a rocket barrage by Hezbollah.

The Lebanese group, for its part, said that it had launched hundreds of rockets and missiles deep into Israel as the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of its senior commander Fouad Shukr in an airstrike in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 40,400 Palestinians since last Oct. 7 after a Hamas attack. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar

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