Israel, Hezbollah Launch Massive attacks Against each Other

Tensions escalated in the Middle East on Sunday as Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon launch massive attacks Against Each Other. Even as the barrage appeared to subside, both sides pledged to persist in their conflict.

“We are delivering unexpected, devastating blows to Hezbollah,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated during a Cabinet meeting. “This marks another step towards altering the situation in the north and ensuring the safe return of our residents to their homes. And let me emphasize, this is not the final word.”

Hezbollah characterized its recent counterattacks against Israel as the initial phase of retaliation for the assassination of Fouad Shukur, a Hezbollah commander, in Beirut last month. Israel had accused Shukur of orchestrating an attack that resulted in the deaths of 12 children and teenagers on a football field. Hezbollah indicated that further strikes would target locations deeper within Israel, but stated that “military operations for today have been completed.”

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While the exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah did not seem to escalate into a wider conflict in the Middle East, longstanding issues remained unresolved. In Cairo on Sunday, Egypt was facilitating new high-level discussions aimed at achieving a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants, seeking to end over 10 months of violence in Gaza and to negotiate the release of around 100 hostages held by Hamas. The cease-fire negotiations have been at a standstill for months.

A view shows smoke on the Lebanese side of the border with Israel after Israel said it had carried out pre-emptive strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon, Aug. 25, 2024.

In the Sunday fighting, Israel said it launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon in what it called a preemptive strike on Hezbollah. The Lebanese militant group then said it fired hundreds of rockets and drones in retaliation for Shukur’s killing.

As the barrage of attacks appeared to end by mid-morning, three people had been killed in Lebanon but none in Israel.

Netanyahu said the Israeli military destroyed thousands of “short-range rockets, all of which were intended to harm our civilians and forces in the Galilee.”

“Additionally, the [Israel Defense Forces] intercepted all the drones that Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in central Israel,” which Israeli media identified as the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad spy agency near Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu, speaking at the start of the Cabinet meeting, said the military had eliminated “thousands of rockets that were aimed at northern Israel” and urged citizens to adhere to directives from the Home Front Command.

“We are determined to do everything to defend our country, to return the residents of the north securely to their homes and to continue upholding a simple rule: Whoever harms us — we will harm them,” he said.

Air raid sirens were reported throughout northern Israel, and Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport closed and diverted flights for about an hour due to the threat of attack. Israel’s Home Front Command raised the alert level in northern Israel and encouraged people to stay near bomb shelters.

Residents check the damage caused by a rocket fired from Lebanon in the Israeli coastal town of Acre, Aug. 25, 2024. (Israel Hezbollah Launch attacks)

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said Hezbollah had intended to hit targets in northern and central Israel. He said initial assessments found “very little damage” in Israel, but that the military remained on high alert. He said around 100 Israeli aircraft took part in Sunday’s strikes.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that two people were killed and another two wounded in the strikes in southern Lebanon. Separately, a fighter for the Amal group, which is allied with Hezbollah, was killed in a strike on a car, Amal said.

Hezbollah said its attack involved more than 320 Katyusha rockets aimed at multiple sites in Israel and a “large number” of drones. It said the operation was targeting “a qualitative Israeli military target that will be announced later” as well as “enemy sites and barracks and Iron Dome [missile defence] platforms.”

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Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, said Sunday morning’s exchange was “still within the rules of engagement and unlikely at this point to lead to an all-out war.”

In the U.S., deputy spokesperson for the National Security Council, Sean Savett, said President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.”

“At his direction, senior U.S. officials have been communicating continuously with their Israeli counterparts,” Savett said. “We will keep supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, and we will keep working for regional stability.”

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, about Israel’s defences. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, is on a visit to the region that is expected to take him to Israel, Egypt and Jordan.