Response to Hezbollah shelling
Israel launches counterattack on areas in southern Lebanon
October 8, 2023, 9:21 a.m
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After the Hamas attack, the Lebanese Hezbollah also fired on Israel “out of solidarity.” The militia explains that they fired a large number of artillery shells and guided missiles. The Israeli army now responds with artillery fire.
24 hours after the radical Islamic Hamas attack on Israel, the Israeli army said it responded to shelling from southern Lebanon with artillery fire. Israeli artillery is in the process of attacking “the area in Lebanon from which a shot was fired,” the Israeli army said. The army initially did not provide any further details.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah militia said it had fired “a large number of artillery shells and guided missiles” at Israeli positions on the border. It was said that the shots were fired “in solidarity” with the major attack by Hamas.
Hamas launched a new war against Israel on Saturday morning with rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian group, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the EU and the USA, said it fired over 5,000 rockets into Israel in its “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”. At the same time, their fighters advanced into Israeli territory on foot, in vehicles, boats and even motorized paragliders. The attacks were strongly condemned internationally.
Israel responded with retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip. According to reports from an AFP journalist, the army carried out air strikes on several buildings in the Gaza Strip overnight, while rockets continued to be fired from there. According to the Israeli army, the targets were Hamas “command centers.” According to preliminary information, a total of more than 300 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured on both sides within one day.
The radical Islamic Hezbollah in Lebanon had previously congratulated Hamas on its “heroic, large-scale” and “victorious” operation against Israel. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia maintains good relations with Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. After the Hamas attacks, fears were raised in Israel that Hezbollah could also attack the country from the north. US President Joe Biden assured Israel of the US’s “rock-solid and unwavering” support. At the same time, he warned that this was “not the moment for any hostile anti-Israel side to exploit these attacks to their advantage.”