Hezbollah and Israel Exchange Limited Fire Over the Border
Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, each said on Sunday that they had fired at targets in the other’s territory, amid fears that the region was teetering toward a wider war. But the attack from Lebanon did not appear to be the major retaliation that Hezbollah has threatened in the wake of the Israeli assassination of one of its senior commanders last week.
Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets at the northern Israeli village of Beit Hillel. Images posted on social media showed Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepting some rockets. The Israeli military said several projectiles fell in “open areas,” and one landed in the area of the village but did not injure anyone. It said it responded by hitting the rockets’ launch site.
The rocket barrage from Hezbollah was in retaliation for earlier Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon that Hezbollah said had caused civilian casualties. The Israeli military said its air force had struck what it described as Hezbollah targets in Kfar Kila and killed a Hezbollah leader in Deir Siriane. Israel’s army also fired mortar shells into Lebanon.
The hostilities on Israel’s northern border have persisted for months without escalating into a full-scale war. Hezbollah has fired thousands of rockets and drones at Israel, saying it was acting in solidarity with Hamas, which is also backed by Iran. Israel has retaliated and evacuated tens of thousands of its residents from the region.
But tensions have soared in recent days, after the assassinations of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in Beirut, and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas’s political office, in Tehran.
Israel said it killed Mr. Shukr in retaliation for a rocket attack days earlier that killed 12 children and teenagers in an Israeli-controlled town. Israel blamed the bloodshed on Hezbollah, which has denied that it conducted the attack.
Hamas and Iran have accused Israel of assassinating Mr. Haniyeh. Israel has not publicly taken responsibility for that killing, but Israeli officials briefed the United States and other Western governments on the details of the operation in its aftermath, Middle Eastern officials have said.
The assassinations appear to have derailed any prospect of a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. And they have put Israel on a state of alert for attacks that could come from multiple countries.
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