The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah unleashed a slew of drone and rocket attacks on Israel Tuesday — but warned that the brunt of its revenge for Israel’s assassination of a top commander last week was yet to come.
Two military sites near Acre in northern Israel and an Israeli military vehicle in another location were among the spots targeted in the latest attack, the armed group said.
The Israeli military confirmed a number of hostile drones had been identified crossing over from Lebanon and at least one was intercepted.
A number of Israeli civilians were injured in one of the strikes near the coastal city of Nahariya, according to Israeli officials.
Surveillance footage of that drone strike captured a huge explosion erupting near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.
The attack drones were launched as fears continue to mount that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war after Hezbollah vowed to target civilians as it seeks to avenge last Tuesday’s slaying of Fuad Shukr, the Tehran-backed terror group’s most senior military commander.
A Hezbollah source told Reuters on Tuesday that “the response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr has not yet come.”
Fears are also rising over a looming retribution attack by Iran following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
A top Iranian diplomat warned Monday that the response to the two slayings of the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders would be “definitive and decisive.”
“Such aggression cannot go unanswered,” Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kani said he told a meeting of fellow foreign diplomats in Tehran.
“The Islamic Republic’s response will be definitive and decisive.”
An Arab diplomat said one Iranian official speculated Monday the attack would occur “imminently” within 48 hours, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It echoed the timeline US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave during a call with Group of Seven foreign ministers on Sunday, two diplomats briefed on the call told the outlet.
Meanwhile, President Biden held frantic crisis talks on Monday in Washington regarding the potential Iranian counterattack on the Jewish state.
Biden too called Jordan’s King Abdullah about the dire situation. Separately, Blinken called top officials in Qatar and Egypt — the key intermediaries seeking a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“We are engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message — all parties must refrain from escalation,” Blinken said in the wake of the White House crisis talks.
“It’s also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a cease-fire in Gaza.”
With Post wires
