The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon fired dozens of missiles at northern Israel on Saturday, threatening to retaliate for the targeted execution of a prominent Hamas commander in the country’s capital earlier this week—possibly by Israel.
The rocket attack came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned his organization must retaliate for the execution of Hamas deputy political head Saleh Arouri in a Hezbollah stronghold south of Beirut.
Mr. Nasrallah said that if Hezbollah did not strike back, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attack.
Hezbollah claimed on Saturday that it has hit an Israeli air surveillance facility on Mount Meron directly with 62 rockets.
The group reported that two army stations close to the border were also hit by missiles. The Israeli military said that a base was targeted and that roughly 40 rockets were fired near Meron, although they did not specify which base was damaged. It claimed to have hit the rocket-firing Hezbollah cell.
In recent weeks, Israel has been scaling back its military assault in the north of the territory and pressing its heavy offensive in the south, vowing to crush Hamas. In the south, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster, while still being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.
