Israel seeks revenge, exchanges artillery fire with Hezbollah

Following the bloodiest attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israel in several years, Israel and Lebanon’s formidable armed group Hezbollah traded artillery and rocket fire on Sunday.

Around 500 Israelis were killed on Saturday in a multi-pronged onslaught by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli towns, and more than 300 Palestinians perished in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes.

The magnitude of the strike raised concerns that a larger battle between Israel and other regionally opposing factions, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an armed group supported by Iran that has previously engaged in combat with Israel, might break out.

On Sunday, Hezbollah claimed that it had attacked three sites in the Shebaa Farms with artillery and guided rockets “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people.

“Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you,” said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut’s outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian fighters.

The Lebanese army said shells and rockets had been launched from southern Lebanon onto “occupied Lebanese territory,” without saying who was responsible, and that returning Israeli fire had left several people wounded.

Army units had been stationed around the southern border, according to the announcement, which was published on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Since 1967, Israel has controlled the Shebaa Farms, a 15 square mile (39 square km) area of land. The Shebaa Farms are said to be Lebanese by both Syria and Lebanon.

Throughout Sunday, the Israeli military maintained a high level of alertness and claimed to have fired artillery into a region of Lebanon where cross-border firing had been initiated.

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reportedly launched a Patriot missile over northern Israel, according to the Channel 12 television station.

The IDF reported that it had spotted a target approaching Israeli land that was “not a hostile aircraft” and “launched an interceptor towards it.”

Israel’s military further claimed that one of its drones shot at many “suspects” in the vicinity after firing a warning shot at a Hezbollah installation in the Shebaa neighbourhood of Har Dov.

According to a Lebanese security source, Hezbollah fighters had built a new tent in the Shebaa Farms after their original one was destroyed.

Throughout the day, there were additional gunfights; according to two Lebanese security sources, rockets fired from Lebanon once again hit Israeli positions in the Shebaa Farms, and Israel retaliated by firing artillery on the community of Kfar Shouba.

UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, reported that it had “detected several rockets fired from southeast Lebanon towards Israeli-occupied territory” in addition to artillery fire into Lebanon from Israel in retaliation.

“We are in contact with authorities on both sides of the Blue Line, at all levels, to contain the situation and avoid a more serious escalation,” spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.

The Blue Line serves as a boundary between Lebanon and Israel, designating the location from which Israeli forces retreated in 2000 to leave south Lebanon.

Following the events in Israel and Gaza, UNIFIL announced on Saturday that it had increased its presence in southern Lebanon, including its efforts to thwart missile launches.

Joanna Wronecka, the U.N.’s special coordinator for Lebanon, expressed her “deep concern” about the exchange of gunfire on X and pleaded with all parties to “shield Lebanon and its people from further conflagration.”