JERUSALEM: Hezbollah launched a significant barrage of missiles towards Israel on Sunday (Aug 25) in retaliation for the assassination of a senior commander in Beirut final month, the Iranian-backed motion mentioned, as Israel’s Cupboard met to arrange a response.
Israeli jets hit targets in Lebanon shortly earlier than the strikes have been launched because the army assessed that Hezbollah was making ready to start the barrage.
“The IDF recognized the Hezbollah terrorist organisation making ready to fireside missiles and rockets towards Israeli territory. In response to those threats, the IDF is putting terror targets in Lebanon,” the Israel Defence Forces mentioned in a press release.
Israel’s cupboard was to satisfy at 7am (12pm, Singapore time), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace introduced.
Flights to and from Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv have been suspended, the airports authority mentioned, and the defence minister declared an emergency.
Warning sirens sounded in northern Israel and a number of explosions have been heard round a number of areas as Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system shot down rockets coming from southern Lebanon. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service mentioned it was on excessive alert everywhere in the nation.
Expectations of an escalation between the 2 sides had risen since a missile strike within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights final month killed 12 kids and the Israeli army assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut in response.
The Israeli army mentioned new civil defence directions could be issued to the inhabitants shortly. It warned civilians in southern Lebanon to avoid areas the place Hezbollah operates.
The strikes got here as negotiators have been assembly in Cairo in a last-ditch effort to conclude a halt to preventing in Gaza and a return of Israeli and overseas hostages in alternate for Palestinian prisoners.
Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel instantly after the Oct 7 assaults by Hamas gunmen on Israel. Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging hearth continually ever since, whereas avoiding a significant escalation as battle rages in Gaza to the south.
That precarious steadiness appeared to shift after the strike within the Golan Heights, for which Hezbollah denied duty, and the following assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior army commander in Beirut.
Shukr’s dying in an air strike was shortly adopted by the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which led to vows of reprisal towards Israel by Iran.
