By Stephanie Rady
BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanon’s Hezbollah group announced Wednesday that it launched 13 attacks on Israeli soldiers, military sites and vehicles in northern Israel.
The high number of attacks marked one of the most intense days in its strikes against Israel since the two sides began exchanging fire over 10 months ago. With few exceptions, over the past few months, the group has normally carried out less than 12 attacks per day.
In a series of statements, Hezbollah detailed its attacks on northern Israel, including “striking a Merkava tank at the al-Abbasiya military site with a guided missile” and “targeting the Ramot Naftali and Ramim barracks, which house troops from the Israeli Golani Brigade, with volleys of Katyusha rockets.”
The group also reported targeting “the Zarit barracks and surrounding Israeli soldiers twice with artillery shells, Israeli soldiers at the Misgav Am site with rocket-propelled weapons, the Al-Malkiyya military base with artillery shells, and spy equipment at the Barqa Risha military site with appropriate weapons.
Hezbollah further claimed to have bombarded “Israeli artillery positions in the Zaura area with rocket-propelled weapons, the Tsanobar logistics base in the occupied Golan Heights with volleys of Katyusha rockets, and the Hadab Yaroun military site with artillery shells.”
The group also claimed to have carried out “drone swarms on the reserve headquarters of the Northern Corps, the reserve base of the Galilee Division, and their logistics warehouses in the Ami'ad settlement, targeting command centers and the positions of officers and soldiers.”
Earlier in the day, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health announced that an Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in the town of Beit Lif, killing a Lebanese citizen and a Syrian national.
One person was also killed and 19 others, including children, were injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes on areas of the Bekaa Valley, it added.
The Israeli army reported that around 60 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel since the morning hours.
In a series of posts on the X platform, the Israeli army said it launched attacks on Hezbollah targets in four areas of southern Lebanon.
According to the Israeli army's claims, this included airstrikes on a building in the town of Shaheen in Tyre district, where Hezbollah members were present, a military building in the village of Kfarkela in Marjayoun district, and artillery shelling to “remove a threat” in the villages of Ayta ash Shab in Bint Jbeil district and Alma al-Shaab in Tyre district.
Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, especially after the July 30 assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza which has killed over 40,170 people since last October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.