Members of Hezbollah and their supporters carry the coffin of Mohammed Nasar, the Hezbollah commander assassinated by Israel on July 3, during his funeral in the southern suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut, Lebanon on July 4.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
Hezbollah launched more than 200 missiles and drones at targets in Israel on Thursday, a day after one of the Lebanese militia’s senior commanders was assassinated in an Israeli drone strike.
The attack was Hezbollah’s biggest salvo in almost nine months of tit-for-tat strikes across the Israel-Lebanon border, feeding fears that this conflict – which has gradually unfolded alongside the war in Gaza – is set to erupt into another all-out war.
Hezbollah said it fired at 13 military targets in the Galilee region of northern Israel, as well as the occupied Golan Heights, setting several large fires. Sirens sounded as far south as the city of Acre, 20 kilometres from the border, where part of an air-defence missile fell on a shopping mall. Israel said 200 projectiles and 20 “suspicious aerial targets” had been launched from Lebanon. At least two people were wounded.
The Israeli military said it responded to the attacks by targeting launching sites across southern Lebanon. At least two sonic booms were heard over Beirut, marking the second day in a row that Israeli jets have conducted mock bombing raids over the Lebanese capital.
Hashem Safieddin leads prayers at the funeral.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
The escalation followed Wednesday’s assassination of Mohammed Nasser, who was described by Hezbollah as one of its regional commanders. Mr. Nasser was killed along with another Hezbollah member when an explosive drone struck their car near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.
Mr. Nasser’s death came three weeks after Taleb Abdallah, another of Hezbollah’s top front-line commanders, was killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in southern Lebanon. That assassination was followed by a similar response, with Hezbollah claiming to launch some 215 missiles and drones at nine military targets in Israel.
Qassem Qasir, a Lebanese expert on Hezbollah, said Mr. Nasser appeared to be equal in rank to Mr. Abdallah. “This is part of Israel’s plan to get rid of all the resistance leaders on the ground,” Mr. Qasir said of the assassination.
The Israeli military said Mr. Nasser held several key roles within Hezbollah and had “led the rockets and anti-tank missile attacks from southwestern Lebanon toward Israeli civilians, communities and security forces” before and since the start of the most recent fighting.
A mother holds her daughter.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
On Thursday, some 1,000 mourners – including about 100 camouflage-clad fighters – gathered for a memorial service for Mr. Nasser held in a hangar in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Afterward, the crowd chanted, “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” as Mr. Nasser’s coffin, draped in a yellow Hezbollah flag, was carried through the streets.
Hashem Safieddin, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, told the mourners that the military response to Mr. Nasser’s killing was ongoing and “will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not think would be hit. It is certain that there are many casualties, including dead and wounded.”
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was expected to give a speech Friday.
Mr. Qasir said he expected Hezbollah’s response would stay within the unofficial rules of the conflict to date, striking at only military targets in the north of Israel – with the militia holding back on using its longer-range arsenal. Both sides have evacuated most of their citizens from the towns and villages in the border area, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under escalating pressure to do something to change the status quo so the 60,000 residents of northern Israel who have been living in internal exile since October can return in time for the start of the new school year. An estimated 100,000 Lebanese have also been forced to flee their homes.
Any escalation of the current fighting is in Benjamin Netanyahu’s hands, Qassem Qasir says.Oliver Marsden/The Globe and Mail
More than 435 Lebanese have been killed over the past nine months, including upward of 350 acknowledged by Hezbollah as members. Nineteen Israeli soldiers have been killed on the country’s northern front.
The long-simmering conflict was reignited by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which killed more than 1,100 people and provoked an Israeli invasion of Gaza that has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, including 58 more on Thursday alone, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Hezbollah says its near-daily missile and drone launches are an act of solidarity with the Palestinians – both it and Hamas are backed by Iran – and that it will cease its attacks as soon as there is a complete ceasefire in Gaza.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has resisted pressure from the United States and other Western governments to bring the Gaza campaign to an end, was due to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal with his security cabinet Thursday. He suggested last month that Israel could begin moving more troops to the Lebanese border as the fighting in Gaza winds down.
Mr. Qasir said any escalation of the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is in Mr. Netanyahu’s hands. “We’re in a position where it’s really difficult to predict what is going to happen next,” he said.