Hezbollah launches rocket attack after commander killed in Israeli attack

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired one of its heaviest rocket salvos yet at Israel on Wednesday, targeting military bases and a weapons factory in response to a nighttime attack that killed one of its senior commanders.

Commander Taleb Abdallah, also known as Abu Taleb, was among the highest-ranking Hezbollah members killed since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza. The Israeli offensive prompted Hezbollah to carry out cross-border attacks in support of Hamas.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had attacked a Hezbollah command and control center, killing Abdallah and three other Hezbollah fighters. Abdallah is one of Hezbollah’s highest-ranking commanders in southern Lebanon, it said.

As sirens blared across northern Israel on Wednesday, Israeli army radio reported that about 150 rockets had been fired from Lebanon, apparently in response to the Israeli attack.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on a number of military bases, including on Mount Meron, where a military radar station is located about eight kilometers south of the border. Hezbollah also claimed to have attacked a weapons factory owned by Plasan, a manufacturer of armored vehicles used by the Israeli military.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the rocket fire, according to the Israeli military. In a statement, it said some rockets were intercepted but several hit the ground and sparked fires.

A week after another Hezbollah rocket attack sparked forest fires that left Israeli firefighters busy putting out the blazes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened “very strong measures” along the Lebanese border.

The Israeli military said it responded with attacks on several launch sites across the border on Wednesday. The Lebanese state news agency reported heavy Israeli air strikes and bombings in the south of the country.

Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese militia and political movement backed by Iran, and Israel have been bombing each other across the border for the past eight months, forcing more than 150,000 people on both sides of the border to flee their homes. But the intensity of the attacks has increased this month as Israeli politicians at the highest levels have threatened further military action.

Israel has targeted Hezbollah commanders in an effort to push the group back north of Lebanon’s Litani River. The goal is to prevent attacks across the border and eventually allow Israeli civilians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes. Some experts are skeptical that the targeted killings will achieve this goal.

Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed to the reporting.