(Beirut) Hezbollah launched a hail of rockets on northern Israel on Wednesday to avenge the death the day before of a top military commander in a targeted Israeli strike on southern Lebanon.
Taleb Sami Abdallah is “the most senior Hezbollah commander to be killed since the start of the war” between Israel and Palestinian Hamas in Gaza eight months ago, according to a Lebanese military source.
According to the Israeli army, around 160 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Wednesday morning, in successive barrages, without causing any casualties according to initial information from the authorities.
Taleb Sami Abdallah was killed along with three other Hezbollah fighters in a strike Tuesday evening on a house where they were in the village of Jouaiyya, in southern Lebanon, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
The Israeli army confirmed having carried out “an air raid” to eliminate Abdallah and three other fighters from Hezbollah, a Lebanese formation armed and financed by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy.
She claimed that Abdallah was “one of Hezbollah’s most important commanders in southern Lebanon” and that he had “planned and executed attacks” against Israel for years.
This is the hardest blow for the Islamist group since it opened the southern Lebanese front against Israel in October, to support its Palestinian ally, Hamas, in its war in Gaza.
In January, Wissam Tawil, a commander of the Al-Radwan force, Hezbollah’s elite unit, was killed in an operation blamed on Israel. Hezbollah posted a photo online on Wednesday showing him alongside Abdallah.
“The Israeli enemy has dealt a severe and painful blow to the Islamic Resistance,” wrote the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, close to Hezbollah, on Wednesday.
He considered that this attack “constituted a dangerous escalation on the part of the enemy”, while the exchanges of fire have increased in intensity in recent days.
Warning sirens sounded several times on Wednesday in northern Israel.
Several projectiles were intercepted, but others fell in northern Israel, causing fires in places, the Israeli army said without specifying the extent.
Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, said no injuries had been reported by late morning.
This escalation of tensions comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 5 that Israel was “ready for a very intense operation in the north.”
The remarks sparked concern in the United States, with Washington warning its ally that an “escalation” in Lebanon would jeopardize Israel’s security.
But analyst Amal Saad, Hezbollah expert, believes that the pro-Iranian formation will not “change its calculations” after the death of this commander.
“It is a controlled escalation and Hezbollah is becoming more and more daring in its responses […], but this in no way means that Hezbollah wants war,” she told AFP.
Hezbollah repeats that it will stop the fighting when a ceasefire is declared in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
More than eight months of almost daily violence have left at least 468 dead in Lebanon, according to an AFP count based on data from the Shiite movement and official Lebanese sources.
They include around 90 civilians and nearly 307 Hezbollah fighters, more than the Lebanese movement lost in its last war with Israel in 2006.
On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed, according to authorities. On both sides of the border, tens of thousands of residents have been displaced by the fighting.
