BEIRUT, (PIC)
The Israeli occupation army launched at dawn Sunday a wave of aerial strikes on Lebanon, while Hezbollah fighters responded by firing dozens of missiles and projectiles towards the north of occupied Palestine.
Different media outlets said that a large number of Israeli warplanes carried out intensive raids on unspecified targets in Lebanon.
A spokesperson for the Israeli army described the series of intense airstrikes on southern Lebanon early on Sunday as a “preemptive” attack launched after receiving information that Hezbollah was preparing for strikes on northern Israel.
Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that a short while ago, the Israeli army identified the Hezbollah group preparing to fire missiles and rockets towards Israeli territory, so it had to strike targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli areas.
The Israeli army said that approximately 200 missiles had been launched from Lebanon towards Israel early Sunday.
The Lebanese resistance group of Hezbollah said in a statement on Sunday that it fired more than 320 Katyusha rockets at 11 Israeli military bases and barracks, including the Meron base and four sites in the occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah said it completed the first phase of its attack on Israel with “a large number of missiles” in response to the killing of its commander Fuaad Shukr at the end of July.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Ben Gurion airport was closed in the early hours of the morning, and some reports emerged of injuries in northern Israel, while cities opened public bomb shelters.
While Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation have been exchanging tit-for-tat attacks across the border with some intensity since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, such strikes on Lebanon marks a significant escalation.
