Hezbollah chief Nasrallah confirms ‘success' in avenging killing of top commander

BEIRUT

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah announced late Sunday its group’s “success” in its military response to Israel's assassination of top commander Fuad Shukr, accusing Tel Aviv of “lying and failing.”

"We identified the Galilot base as the primary target of our operation. It houses Unit 8200, which is responsible for intelligence gathering and espionage. The base is located 110 kilometers (68 miles) from the Lebanese border and only 1,500 meters (0.93 miles) from Tel Aviv,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

“Our operation today was in two phases. In the first phase, we launched 340 Katyusha rockets targeting 12 sites and military barracks in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights. In the second phase, we directed dozens of drones towards military targets in the depth of enemy territory.”

Regarding the results of the attack, he said “our data indicates that a significant number of drones successfully reached the two specified targets with precision, but the enemy remains secretive as usual.”

“We focused on hitting sites connected to military intelligence and the Israeli Air Force because of their involvement in the assassination of the leader Shukr,” he added.

Israeli warplanes launched over 40 airstrikes on southern Lebanon early Sunday in the most severe attack since cross-border attacks with Hezbollah began on Oct. 8, 2023. The Israeli army claimed that the strikes aimed to prevent an impending Hezbollah attack.

The Lebanese group said it launched hundreds of missiles and drones deep into Israel in the “first phase” of its response to last month’s assassination of Shukr in the capital Beirut.

Since Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah has been engaged in daily exchanges of fire with the Israeli army across the Blue Line that marks the frontier between south Lebanon and northern Israel, resulting in hundreds of casualties, mostly on the Lebanese side.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 40,400 Palestinians since an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala