Hezbollah fires rocket barrage at Israel in escalating fight

Hezbollah launched more than a hundred missiles at Israeli military sites in one of the Lebanon-based group’s heaviest assaults in recent months, threatening to escalate an already simmering conflict.

The Tuesday morning rocket attack was in response to an Israeli strike on the Lebanese city of Baalbek that killed one person, Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a statement.

At least 10 people were injured in separate Israeli assault Tuesday on a town in the eastern Bekaa region, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported, a rare attack in the area that’s some 80 kilometers away from the border. Israel Defense Forces said it hit two sites belonging to Hezbollah’s aerial forces.

“What are you waiting for? More than 100 missiles on the State of Israel and you sit quietly?” Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on a post on social-media site X, aimed at Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “Let’s start reacting, attacking.”

Ben-Gvir is an ultra-nationalist who frequently urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act more forcefully against Hezbollah.

The latest exchanges are likely to increase concerns that the near daily trading of fire between the two sides could escalate into a full-blown conflict, opening up a new front to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militias in the Middle East, and Hamas are both supported by Tehran and have the destruction of the Jewish state among their goals.

Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese have evacuated their homes due to the cross-border fighting, which erupted around the time Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and triggering the war in Gaza.

The Israel-Hezbollah skirmishes had previously been kept mostly within what each side defines as the implicit rules of engagement — civilians aren’t directly targeted and the areas of attack are close to the border. But exceptions have started to become more frequent.

Hezbollah said it targeted air and missile defense facilities in the Keila barracks in the Golan Heights, in the north of Israel. The organization, considered like Hamas a terrorist group by the U.S., also aimed for a missile and artillery base in Yoav and other positions.

The IDF confirmed that over 100 rockets were fired toward the north of the country and that its fighter jets struck three launchers in response.