By Wassim Saifuldine
BEIRUT (AA) - Hezbollah said Friday it targeted military sites in northern Israel while Tel Aviv continued its air raids on various southern Lebanese towns.
In several statements, Hezbollah reported that it struck the al-Samaqa site in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills and the al-Marj Israeli site with rocket weapons.
The group also confirmed hitting Israeli troop deployments in the al-Dahira site and Blida site with artillery shells.
Early Friday, Hezbollah claimed launching anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes inside Lebanese airspace in the south, forcing them to retreat and withdraw beyond the Lebanese border.
The official Lebanese news agency reported Israeli artillery shelling on the outskirts of the western region town of Tyre Harfa. An Israeli drone also carried out a strike targeting the border town of al-Dahira with three missiles.
The agency confirmed that an Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the city of Tyre, while an Israeli drone carried out an air raid on the border town of Rab El Thalathine in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah vowed a “real and well-calculated response, not merely a symbolic one” to the assassination of senior commander Fouad Shaker, stating that “the confrontation with Israel has evolved into a major open battle spanning multiple fronts.”
On Tuesday evening, Israel assassinated Hezbollah commander Fouad Shaker, 63, in an airstrike on a building in Beirut's southern suburb.
Fears have grown of a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah amid a months-long exchange of cross-border fire.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of an Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed nearly 39,500 people since last October, following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
*Witting by Mohammad Sio