Lebanon’s Hezbollah targets illegal settlement in northern Israel

By Stephanie Rady

BEIRUT (AA) - The Lebanese group Hezbollah announced on Saturday that it had launched Katyusha rockets at the Ayelet HaShahar illegal settlement in northern Israel.

In a statement, Hezbollah said it added Ayelet HaShahar to its "firing schedule" and struck the illegal settlement with Katyusha rockets for the first time.

The group stated that the attack was in response to "the Israeli enemy's assaults on the steadfast southern villages and safe homes, particularly in the town of Wadi al-Kafour, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of Syrian civilians."

Earlier on Saturday, the Lebanese Health Ministry said that 10 Syrians were killed and five injured when an Israeli airstrike targeted Wadi Al-Kafour in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon.

Fears have grown of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah amid an exchange of cross-border attacks especially after the July 30 assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut the previous day.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 people since last October, since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi