BEIRUT, Lebanon —The Lebanese militia Hezbollah fired dozens of projectiles into northern Israel on Saturday and warned that the barrage was its initial response to the targeted assassination, presumably by Israel, of a senior official of the allied group Hamas in the Lebanese capital earlier this week.
The incident came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group should retaliate for the death of Saleh Arouri, deputy political chief of Hamas. He claimed that if the militia does not respond to the killing in his stronghold south of Beirut, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to an Israeli attack.
Nasrallah appeared to be defending the intervention to the Lebanese public, although the initiative could intensify fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. But he gave no indications about when or how he would act.
Hezbollah said Saturday it fired 62 rockets at an air surveillance base on Mount Meron, scoring direct hits. The Israeli army, for its part, indicated that about 40 projectiles were fired towards the Meron area, but did not mention the base, and said it hit the cell that carried out the launches.
The intensification of cross-border exchanges coincides with the start of a new visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East to try to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas, which is in its 14th week, from spreading across the country. the region. Blinken was in Turkey on Saturday, where he will meet with the president and foreign minister.
It is the fourth trip by the head of US diplomacy to the area in three months.
International criticism of Israel’s operations in Gaza has intensified as Washington is increasingly concerned about an end to the conflict. Adding to these concerns is the recent increase in attacks in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq.
Source: AP/EUROPA PRESS
