Beirut- Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says it has fired a barrage of rockets at Israeli positions in occupied Shebaa Farms in retaliation for Israel’s airstrikes on southern Lebanon a day earlier.
In a statement, Hezbollah said it hit “open fields” near Israeli positions at 11:15 a.m. local time Friday, using “dozens” of 122-caliber rockets.
Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen television said at least 20 rockets were fired at Israel’s military positions. Al-Minar TV said a number of the rockets targeted the Douf military base.
A Lebanese security source said the rockets were launched from the area of al-Arqoub, near the Lebanese town of Shebaa.
Air raid sirens sounded in the Upper Galilee, and in the Golan Heights, part of the territory Israel occupied in 1967.
Israeli media said residents of settlements in the north of the occupied territories had been asked to stay in homes.
Following the retaliatory rocket attack, Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett and the regime’s minister of military affairs Benny Gantz held an emergency session amid reports of a massive number of sorties conducted by Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon.
According to Al Jazeera, the Israeli military fired phosphorus bombs at Lebanese territories around the Kafr Shuba hills near the border, causing fire in nearby fields.
The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit areas in southern Lebanon with artillery fire.
The development came after Israeli jets struck what the regime’s military claimed were rocket launch sites in Lebanon.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the Israeli airstrikes were the first targeting villages since 2006 and showed an escalation in its “aggressive intent” towards his country.
Aoun also said the strikes were a direct threat to the security and stability of southern Lebanon and violated UN Security Council resolutions.
UN Warns Lebanon-Israel Border Escalation “Very Dangerous”
The UN peacekeeping force patrolling the Lebanon-Israel border, UNIFIL, warned of a “very dangerous situation” after the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and the Israeli army traded fire on Friday.
“This is a very dangerous situation, with escalatory actions seen on both sides over the past two days,” it said, adding that it was working to “prevent the situation from spiralling out of control”.
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