6 rockets fired from Lebanon at Metula; IDF airstrikes hit dozens of Hezbollah sites

Six rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at the northern Israeli border community Metula on Saturday morning, in the first rocket attack on the northern border since December.

The Israel Defense Forces later responded with two waves of airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah sites, including rocket launchers, across Lebanon.

The IDF said air defenses intercepted three projectiles that crossed the border, while the other three rockets fell short in Lebanon.

There were no reports of injuries or damage in the rocket attack.

Metula Mayor David Azoulai said some of the eight percent of the town’s residents who have returned since the November ceasefire left after the attack. “The return of residents to Metula under the current conditions is unreasonable. Metula residents won’t be held hostage to a security compromise,” he said.

A number of hours later, the Hezbollah terror group denied being responsible for the rocket fire on northern Israel.

A video released by the IDF on March 22, 2025, shows strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. (Israel Defense Forces)

In a statement, Hezbollah said it “reiterates its commitment to the ceasefire agreement and stands behind the Lebanese state in addressing this dangerous Zionist escalation against Lebanon.”

The IDF initially responded to the attack with artillery fire against the source of the rocket fire in south Lebanon.

The official National News Agency in Lebanon reported Israeli artillery fire on the Nabatieh district in the south and the town of Khiam, which was hit by “three shells [fired by] Merkava tanks.”

Troops also fired automatic weapons at the border villages of Hula, Markaba, and Kfar Kila, the news agency said.

The IDF later launched a wave of airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers and a command center used by the terror group in southern Lebanon.

It was unclear why Israel knew the location of the rocket launchers but had not previously targeted them.

In the evening, the military carried out a second wave of strikes, saying it targeted Hezbollah command centers, infrastructure, operatives, rocket launchers, and a weapons depot.

The second wave was carried out across Lebanon, with Lebanese media reporting strikes in the south of the country, in the coastal city of Tyre, in the eastern Beqaa Valley, and in the Hermel area in northern Lebanon.

The rocket attack “is a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and a direct threat to Israeli citizens,” the military said, adding that “the State of Lebanon bears responsibility for upholding the agreement.”

The IDF said that Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir held a situation assessment and that Home Front Command directives were unchanged.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health announced that five people were killed, including a child, and another 11 were injured in the strikes in south Lebanon. Another man was killed and seven others were injured in Tyre and five people were injured in another Israeli strike in the Hermel area.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the IDF to respond to the rocket attack and also issued an apparent threat to strike Beirut.

“We will not allow a reality of fire from Lebanon on the Galilee communities. We have promised security to the Galilee communities, and that is exactly what will happen,” he said in a statement.

Katz said that “the fate of Metula is the same as Beirut,” in an apparent threat to the Lebanese capital.

“The Lebanese government bears responsibility for any fire from its territory. I have instructed the IDF to respond accordingly,” he added.

A number of hours after the attack, Lebanese army said it located three makeshift rocket launchers between the south Lebanon towns of Kfar Tebnit and Arnoun, which were used to fire the rockets at Metula.

In a statement, the Lebanese Armed Forces said it dismantled the launchers.

“Military units continue to take the necessary measures to control the situation in the south,” the LAF added.

على أثر إطلاق صواريخ من الأراضي اللبنانية نحو الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة، أجرى الجيش عمليات مسح وتفتيش وعثر بنتيجتها على ٣ منصات صواريخ بدائية الصنع في المنطقة الواقعة شمال نهر الليطاني بين بلدتَي كفرتبنيت وأرنون – النبطية، وعمل على تفكيكها.
تستمر الوحدات العسكرية في اتخاذ… pic.twitter.com/iIfoZO9vRu

— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) March 22, 2025

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned his country was at risk of being drawn into a “new war.”

“All security and military measures must be taken to show that Lebanon decides on matters of war and peace,” Salam said.

“Salam warned of renewed military operations on the southern border, because of the risks they carry dragging the country into a new war, which will bring woes to Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” a statement read.

Meanwhile, mayors of northern towns expressed their anger at the situation.

Metula’s Azoulay accused the government and the IDF Northern Command of trying “to normalize” a situation of occasional rocket fire from the north.

“We won’t allow them to normalize this. I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and of course IDF Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin to act offensively and make it so that not one bullet is fired ever again at northern communities,” he told the Ynet news site.

“This is a failure, this is exactly the policy of containment of [before] October 7,” he said. “Instead of dealing with nonsense, start providing security to the country’s residents.”

Azoulay has in the past described his town as “the most bombarded” along Israel’s border with Lebanon. According to assessments, some 60 percent of homes and other municipal buildings in the town have been totally destroyed by Hezbollah attacks.

Kiryat Shmona mayor Avichai Stern issued a statement, asking the military’s Northern Command chief if he still believed it was safe for people to return to their homes near the border.

“I have just one question for the head of the IDF’s Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, who said that nothing is preventing a return to the north. Do you still think that?” Stern said in a statement cited by Hebrew media outlets.

A November 27, 2024, truce in Lebanon largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. The fighting came after the terror group attacked Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of its ally Hamas, which invaded, from Gaza, a day earlier. The persistent rocket fire from Lebanon displaced some 60,000 Israeli civilians.

Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory since the truce agreement took effect, saying it is acting against Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire.

Last month, Israel withdrew all its forces from southern Lebanon, except from five strategic points, saying it had received a green light from the US to remain at those posts and citing the need to prevent Hezbollah from returning to the area and threatening Israel.

The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.

Nurit Yohanan and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.