Hezbollah keeps up pressure on Israel days after commander’s death
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A firefighting plane dispersing fire retardant on June 13, as it assisted in extinguishing fires from rockets launched into Israel from Lebanon.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIRUT - Hezbollah on June 15 kept up retaliatory attacks on military positions in northern Israel, and one person was killed in Lebanon, days after an Israeli strike hit a senior commander from the Iran-backed group.
Senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdallah was killed in an Israeli strike
Hezbollah said on June 15 that it targeted the Meron base in northern Israel with “guided missiles”, and sent “attack drones” towards another Israeli base “as part of the response to the attack and assassination carried out by the enemy in Jouaiyya”.
Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group’s Oct 7 attack on Israel,
The Israeli army confirmed it had carried out the strike targeting Abdallah, describing him as “one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders in southern Lebanon”.
On June 15, the Israeli army said “two projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards the IDF (army) Aerial Control Unit in the area of Meron in northern Israel”, reporting “no injuries or damage to the unit’s capabilities”.
It also said “several aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory” and falling in the Goren area, adding that there were no reported injuries, but “a fire broke out”.
“Aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist” in south Lebanon’s Aitaroun area, the military said, adding that “artillery fired to remove a threat”, also in the Aitaroun area.
A source close to Hezbollah and rescuers affiliated with the group said a non-Lebanese man was killed in Aitaroun without providing further details.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported unspecified casualties in an “Israeli drone” strike on a motorbike on the road between Aitaroun and Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.
On June 12, top Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine vowed the group would “increase the intensity, strength, quantity and quality of our attacks” while speaking at Abdallah’s funeral.
A Lebanese military source said Abdallah was the “most important” Hezbollah commander to have been killed since the start of the war.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 471 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 91 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities say at least 15 Israeli soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed in the country’s north. AFP
