Hezbollah Launches More Attacks Against Israel, Mourns Five Fighters (Videos)

Click to see full-size image. By Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib.

Hezbollah targeted four Israeli military sites on the border with Lebanon right after attacking a key base of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on January 6 morning.

In separate statements, the group said its fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli troops in the Avivim site and Honen barracks. It also announced attacks with “rockets and suitable weapons” on the sites of Blida and Metulla.

The attacks were carried out “to support the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance,” according to Hezbollah.

Separately, the al-Fajr Forces of the Lebanese Islamic Group, which is allied to Hezbollah, announced that it had launched two salvo of rockets at the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona.

In the morning, Hezbollah fired more than 60 rockets of different types at a key aerial control, command and surveillance base of the IDF on Mount Meron, the highest peak in Israel. The group said that the attack was an “initial response” to the recent assassination of Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Palestinian Hamas Movement, in Lebanon.

Video footage posted to social media showed several direct hits on the base. However, the IDF didn’t report any casualties.

Shortly after the attack, Israel’s Channel 12 aired footage apparently showing an Israeli Apache attack helicopter shooting down a drone launched by Hezbollah over the border with Lebanon. The claim that a drone was downed in the incident featured in the clip is yet to be confirmed by the IDF.

The IDF responded to Hezbollah’s attacks by carrying out strikes against targets of the group, including rocket launchers, military sites and other infrastructure, in the towns of Ayta al-Shab, Yaroun, Ramyah and several others in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media later reported that an Israeli strike hit the outskirts of the town of Kouthariyeh al-Siyad, about 40 kilometers away from the border with Israel.

Intense Israeli strikes also hit the towns of Khiam and Borj al-Mlouk. Smoke and white phosphorus artillery shells were heavily used.

The strikes on southern Lebanon didn’t result in any civilian casualties. However, Hezbollah announced the death of five fighters, saying in separate statements mourning them that they were killed “on the road to Jerusalem.”

Hezbollah and its allies, including Hamas wing in Lebanon, have been clashing with the IDF along the border since the war in the Gaza Strip first broke out.

As of January 6, the clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border have resulted in four civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of nine IDF soldiers. On the Lebanese side, more than 180 have been killed. The toll includes 143 Hezbollah fighters, 14 of whom were killed in Syria, 25 Palestinians, a Lebanese soldier, at least 21 civilians.

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