Late last night, the Lebanese Hezbollah launched three anti-tank missiles at Upper Galilee, north of Israel. The movement also vowed to avenge the assassination of Saleh Arouri, the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, in Beirut.
Hezbollah stated that it targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in the vicinity of the Marjeyoun military site, causing casualties among them, both dead and wounded.
Israeli media confirmed that shortly after the assassination operation, Hezbollah launched an anti-tank missile at the Moshav Margaliot area on the Lebanese border. The Lebanese movement also fired two anti-tank missiles at a site in the Manara area, while the Israeli military attacked the source of the fire.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for 10 attacks on northern Israel in the past 24 hours.
In a separate development, the Lebanese News Agency reported that Israeli aircraft bombed the outskirts of the southern town of Hula with phosphorus bombs and carried out strikes on Wadi Hoineh in southern Lebanon.
Before the assassination of Arouri in the southern suburb of Beirut, a stronghold of the group, Hezbollah targeted the surroundings of the Israeli site of Jal al-Alam and the Metat military barracks.
Hezbollah's Response
Following Arouri's assassination, Hezbollah stated that the assassination would not pass without response, considering the operation a serious aggression against Lebanon, its people, security, sovereignty, and resistance, with political and security messages of great symbolism and implications, according to the party's statement.
Previously, Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that any assassination on Lebanese soil targeting a Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Iranian, or others would receive a strong reaction. He expressed that Lebanon shall not become an open scene for assassinations.
An Israeli official indicated that the Israeli authorities are preparing for what he described as a large retaliatory response to Hezbollah for assassinating Arouri in Beirut.
The Israeli news site Walla reported yesterday that the unnamed official said Tel Aviv is preparing for "retaliatory action," including the launch of long-range missiles at targets in Israel.
The assassination of Arouri comes at a time when the southern Lebanese border is witnessing sporadic daily confrontations and shelling between Hezbollah on the one hand and the Israeli military on the other since October 8th, resulting in dozens of casualties on both sides of the border.
