Hezbollah sends 'dozens' of rockets into Israel in 'initial response' to device explosions

HEZBOLLAH HAS SAID it has targeted military production facilities and an air base in northern Israel today following Israeli strikes targeting rocket launchers.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group said in a statement that the rocket fire at the area of the northern Israeli city of Haifa was part of its response to attacks this week blamed on Israel.

“In an initial response” to the explosions of pagers and two-way radios on Tuesday and Wednesday, Hezbollah “bombed the Rafael military industry complexes” in northern Israel with “dozens” of Katyusha, Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets, the group said.

Hezbollah also said it targeted the “Ramat David base and airport”, around 45 kilometres from the border, twice overnight with “dozens” of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted different Lebanese regions and killed many civilians”.

The Ramat David site is among the deepest inside Israeli territory that the group has said it has targeted in nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.

The air base and the Rafael site both appeared in drone footage Hezbollah released in recent months, in videos seen as a potential bank of targets for the group in case of widening conflict.

Hezbollah began cross-border attacks in support of Hamas but has generally said it has targeted positions near the border.

The Israeli army said more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanon early this morning, adding that fire services were working to put out blazes sparked by falling munitions.

Yesterday, the Israeli army said it was “attacking widely in southern Lebanon following the identification of Hezbollah’s preparations to fire into Israeli territory”.

It had also said its aircraft “struck thousands of launcher barrels that were ready for immediate use to fire toward Israeli territory”.

Israel’s civil defence agency today ordered all schools in the country’s north closed following rocket fire by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and intensifying cross-border violence.

The military’s Home Front Command said schools and other educational institutions and activities would not be permitted in the north until at least Monday at 6pm.