Hezbollah strikes Israeli barracks following commander’s assassination

On Sunday, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted a military site in northern Israel using an armed drone. This attack was a response to the killing of an Islamist commander.

Since the Gaza conflict began on October 7, Israel and Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group allied with Hamas, have been engaging in almost daily cross-border exchanges of fire.

Earlier, Hezbollah released a video showing various locations in Israel along with their coordinates, increasing concerns about a possible full-scale conflict between the two adversaries.

On Saturday, the Jamaa Islamiya group reported the death of one of its commanders, Ayman Ghotmeh, who they claimed was killed in an Israeli raid in Khiara, located in Lebanon’s West Bekaa region.

Israel later confirmed the strike, stating that Ghotmeh was responsible for providing weapons to the Fajr Forces, Jamaa Islamiya’s armed wing, and Hamas in the area.

In retaliation for the assassination, Hezbollah stated on Sunday that its fighters had carried out an attack using a drone on a military leadership position in the Beit Hillel barracks.

The Israeli military confirmed that a drone had “crossed from Lebanon and fell in the area of Beit Hillel,” adding that there were no reported injuries.

Tensions across the border have escalated recently, with Israel’s military announcing on Tuesday that plans for an offensive in Lebanon had been “approved and validated.”

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that in the event of an all-out war, no part of Israel would be spared.

Hezbollah also released a video on Saturday evening showing Israeli positions and their coordinates, accompanied by a segment of Nasrallah’s speech, stating that if war were imposed on Lebanon, the resistance would fight without any restrictions.

Earlier in the week, Hezbollah circulated a nine-minute video showing aerial footage, which they claimed was taken by the group over northern Israel, highlighting sensitive military, defense, and energy facilities in the city and port of Haifa.

The ongoing cross-border violence has resulted in the deaths of at least 480 people in Lebanon, most of whom were fighters, along with 93 civilians, according to an AFP tally. Israeli authorities report that at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.