Lebanon strikes preparing for ground offensive – Israel army chief

By firing the missile, Hezbollah could have been trying to send a message to Israel that it remains a threat despite an unprecedented wave of attacks that has severely damaged its ability to operate.

First, on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, 39 people were killed and thousands were wounded when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members to communicate exploded in two waves across Lebanon.

Then, an Israeli air strike on Friday on the group’s stronghold of Dahieh, in southern Beirut, essentially wiped out the chain of command of its main fighting unit, the Radwan Force. The group confirmed that one of its top military leaders, Ibrahim Aqil, was among 55 people killed.

And on Monday, Israel started an intense and widespread air campaign targeting Hezbollah positions and weapons in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

The Lebanese health minister said many civilians were among the approximately 500 killed, making it the deadliest day in Lebanon since the end of the civil war more than three decades ago.

The Israeli government has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the electronic device attacks. However, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday that the intensification of the country’s attacks against Hezbollah “started with various explosions of pagers”.

Also on Wednesday, Israel’s ambulance service said that it had treated two people wounded, one of them seriously, by shrapnel from a Hezbollah rocket that landed in Kibbutz Saar, near the northern coastal city of Nahariya.

Rocket fire also caused heavy damage to an assisted living home to the east in the town of Safed, near the Sea of Galilee, and sparked a number of wildfires, according to police and fire fighters. No injuries were reported.

Hezbollah claimed its fighters had fired dozens of rockets towards a town near Safed as well as an Israeli military base.