In retaliatory move, Lebanon’s Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets at Israeli base

Beirut, Lebanon – – AFP

Hezbollah has said that it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli base in the occupied Golan Heights on Monday in retaliation for a strike in Lebanon’s east.

Earlier, Lebanese official media said three people had been wounded in an Israeli strike early Monday in the country’s east, with the Israeli army saying it had struck a Hezbollah “military compound”.

Hezbollah fighters launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” targeting “the headquarters of the Golan Division… at Nafah base”, the group said in a statement, saying it was “in response to the enemy’s attack targeting the Bekaa region”.

“Enemy warplanes launched a strike at around 1:30 am this morning on a factory in Sifri, wounding three civilians and destroying the building,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.

Sifri is located in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, near the city of Baalbek, around 80 kilometres from the Israel-Lebanon frontier.

The Israeli army said its warplanes “struck a Hezbollah military structure… deep inside Lebanon,” referring to the location as “Safri”.

Last month, a building in Sifri was targeted in an Israeli raid, according to a source close to Hezbollah, while the Israeli army said it had targeted Hezbollah sites in Lebanon’s east.

East Lebanon’s Baalbek area is a Hezbollah stronghold and has been repeatedly struck by Israel in recent weeks.

On Sunday official media in Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a southern village killed four family members, with Hezbollah announcing retaliatory fire by dozens of rockets towards Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.

In Lebanon, at least 390 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.