Hezbollah fires rocket volleys at north, hits home with anti-tank missile
No injuries reported in attacks by Lebanese terror group; IDF responds with shelling; army officials deny reported March 15 deadline for deal pushing Hezbollah from border
Hezbollah fired several separate volleys of rockets and missiles at northern Israeli communities and army bases on Thursday, as the terror group kept up attacks in what it has said was solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah also said one of its attacks Thursday was a response to Israeli shelling of the Lebanese town of Dhayra that allegedly left one civilian dead.
The Israel Defense Forces responded with artillery fire toward the rocket and missile launch sites, as a report asserted Jerusalem had set a March 15 deadline for a diplomatic deal pushing the Iran-backed terrorist organization’s forces from southern Lebanon.
There were no reports of injuries in the Hezbollah attacks throughout the day, though a home in the border town of Metula was damaged after being directly struck by an anti-tank missile, according to local authorities.
On Thursday morning, Hezbollah said it had targeted an IDF site south of the border community of Rosh Hanikra. Some 10 rockets were launched in the barrage, with nine of them being downed by the Iron Dome air defense system, according to the IDF.
Following the October 7 terror onslaught that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
Responding to Thursday’s attacks, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes on buildings used by Hezbollah in the southern Lebanon towns of Aitaroun, Ayta ash-Shab and Zibqin.
Earlier Thursday, the IDF said troops downed a Hezbollah explosive-laden drone that entered Israeli airspace from Lebanon, near Bar’am.
Another Hezbollah drone crashed in the Mount Hermon area, causing no injuries, the IDF said.
Additionally, the IDF said it struck a Hezbollah building in Matmoura and an observation post in Jebbayn overnight Wednesday.
It also confirmed that two rockets were fired from Syria at Israel overnight, hitting open areas in the Golan Heights.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hezbollah claimed that Israel had set a March 15 deadline for a diplomatic deal pushing the terror group from southern Lebanon, after which it is prepared to escalate the ongoing border skirmishes into a war.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US special envoy Amos Hochstein that Hezbollah’s continued attacks on Israel were bringing the country closer to a decision regarding military action in Lebanon.
Al-Akhbar quoted Western officials saying that Hochstein did not believe the fighting along the border could be halted before a deal is reached for a truce in Gaza, which is currently on pause after negotiations in Cairo this week failed to yield results.
The Lebanese news outlet also claimed the US thinks a diplomatic settlement between Beirut and Jerusalem would have to include a solution to the border disputes, in particular in the Mount Dov area, known in Lebanon as the Shebaa Farms, and the deployment of Lebanon’s army to the south.
But military officials were quoted by Channel 13 as denying the report.
“There’s no date for going to war in Lebanon,” an unnamed source told the network.
Since October 8, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of ten IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries. Hezbollah has named 235 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria.
In Lebanon, another 37 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
