Israeli military base attacked in retaliation to killings of commanders in Lebanon, says Hezbollah

Lebanon-based Hezbollah on Wednesday said it attacked an Israeli base in retaliation to the killing of three fighters of the group.

Hezbollah is a Iran-backed armed group that’s based in southern Lebanon. It is part of the network of Iran-sponsored groups in the Middle East that share its opposition to the State of Israel.

In a statement carried by AFP, Hezbollah said it launched “a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a military reconnaissance command centre” in northern Israel “in response to the enemy assassinating a number of resistance fighters in Ain Baal and Shehabiya” on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military killed Ismail Yusef Baz, a coastal commander of Hezbollah, in the Ain Baal area of southern Lebanon. Hours later, another Israeli airstrike in the town of Chehabiyeh killed two Hezbollah members. One of them was identified as Muhammad Shahouri, a commander of the group’s elite Radwan force.

In a separate report, The Jerusalem Post said that the Hezbollah claimed attacking the headquarters of Israeli military’s 91st division in Biranit in northern Israel. The report further said that sirens sounded in the areas of Alkosh, Matat, Fassuta, Netua, and Hurfeish on Wednesday morning.

Hezbollah has clashed with Israel on a nearly-daily basis since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War in October 2023. The report said it has launched around 3,200 missiles at Israel in the past six months of war. The group also joined the Iranian assault on Israel over the weekend and fired around 150 rockets at Israel. The group has, however, not escalated the clashes to a full-blown war.

Hezbollah is the strongest of the Iranian proxies in the Middle East and is understood to have an arsenal of around 150,000 rockets and 45,000 fighters, according to reports.