Update: Hezbollah strikes two targets in Israel with guided missiles
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has retaliated against Israel for an attack the latter’s military forces carried out in Syria about one week ago that killed at least two of its members.
The action makes good on the promises of Hezbollah’s leadership in the past days that Israel and its military would endure consequences for its actions against the Lebanese group in Syria.
Earlier on Sunday, it was reported that a Hezbollah anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) team struck an Israeli armored personnel carrier in northern Israel near the Lebanese border.
Al-Manar News claims that the Israeli vehicle attacked was a wheeled armored personnel carrier type designated as ‘Wolf’ which has the capability of transporting an entire squad (eight personnel) of Israeli troops.
In more recent hours, additional reports have surfaced that Hezbollah expanded its attack against Israeli forces, again near the Lebanon-Israel border, by attacking a military base with multiple ATGMs – this information seems more or less confirmed at this point given that journalists linked to established Israeli media groups have reported it too.
Regarding the second report, some sources are saying that the Hezbollah missile attack has achieved hits against targets within the Israeli military base although there are no details on specifics such as what was struck and possible military personnel losses.
In any event, the Israeli army has responded by shelling villages in southern Lebanon using heavy artillery – Lebanese civilian casualties are expected.
Prior to this attack, some MENA analysts argued that Hezbollah’s promised retaliation against Israel would be conducted in a way that would not be too harsh as to escalate into a general state of war as was witnessed in 2006.
Now that Hezbollah has conducted its attack and Israel itself is now counter-responding, the coming hours and days will probably be the most critical in telling if escalations will reach a point similar to the 2006 conflict.
