Hezbollah terrorists fired a barrage of around 30 rockets from Lebanon at the Upper Galilee on Thursday. Most of the projectiles were intercepted, while others hit in open areas, the IDF said.
There were no initial reports of injuries, though the rockets caused several fires, according to the Upper Galilee Regional Council.
The Iranian terror proxy took responsibility for the salvo, saying that it had fired “dozens of Katyushas” at a military base near Safed. Hezbollah claimed that the attack was in response to a strike on a vehicle in Lebanon’s Nabatieh area earlier in the day that killed a Hezbollah operative.
The IDF later named the dead man as Muhammad Ali Nasser Fran, who in recent years was “responsible for the infrastructure for the production and equipping of the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.”
The IDF continued: “In recent years, the terrorist Nasser Fran has been engaged in the production of strategic and unique weapons for Hezbollah, and some of the infrastructures he was responsible for in Southern Lebanon have been attacked during the past months.”
Six firefighting teams were working in the Emek Hula area, near Kibbutz Ayelet Hashar, after the Hezbollah attack.
The commander of the incident, Rabbi Reshef Gadi Azoulai, said: “Firefighters from the Galilee-Golan station are working in several locations, while in the center, we are preparing in three sectors to contain the spread of the fire together with forces from the Nature and Parks Authority. As of this hour, the fire is not under control.”
Following the salvo, a warning was also issued for a hostile aircraft infiltration from Lebanon over Kiryat Shmona and surrounding Galilee communities, with the IDF Home Front Command later declaring the incident resolved.
Hezbollah later issued a second claim of responsibility for Thursday’s attacks, saying that it fired at “spying equipment at an outpost in Metula.”
Hezbollah has carried out near-daily attacks on northern Israel since joining the war against the Jewish state in support of Hamas following the Gaza-based terrorist group’s Oct. 7 massacre. The attacks have killed more than 20 Israelis and led to widespread physical damage.
More than 80,000 residents of 42 northern Israeli communities located within 6.2 miles of the Lebanon border remain internally displaced due to the ongoing Hezbollah threat. JNS
