Israel launched strikes in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in the early hours of this morning, saying it targeted Hamas positions in retaliation for dozens of rockets being fired at its territory.

Airstrikes began shortly before midnight in the Gaza Strip and shelling in Lebanon at around 04:00.

The Israeli military said it “hit targets, especially infrastructure belonging to the terrorist organization Hamas, in southern Lebanon.”

It is the first time that Israel has confirmed that it has attacked Lebanon since April 2022.

The strikes add to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East since Wednesday, following a relative lull in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since Ramadan began on March 23.

Strong explosions were heard in the area of ​​Tire in southern Lebanon.

A resident of the Palestinian refugee camp in Rashdiya, very close to Tyre, Abu Ahmad, told AFP that he “heard explosions”, and at least two “shells” fell “close to the camp”.

And an AFP correspondent found that a shell hit the wall of a house near a plantation near the camp, causing material damage.

Yesterday Thursday, the day of the Jewish Passover, more than thirty rockets were launched from Lebanon against Israel, as a result of which two people were slightly injured and material damage was caused.

The Iron Dome air defense system shot down 25 of the 34 rockets fired, according to the Israeli military.

It was the most serious escalation on the Israel-Lebanon front, countries that technically remain at war, since 2006.

It was recorded after Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site, for two consecutive nights to drive out Palestinian “troublemakers” who were “fortified” inside the place of worship, according to her.

The price”

The Israeli military said it was certain the rockets were “Palestinian” and were fired either by members of Hamas or by members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“We will hit our enemies and they will pay the price for every attack,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night before the start of a closed cabinet meeting with only security ministers.

The United Nations Interim Force (FINUL), deployed in southern Lebanon and guarding the buffer zone between the two countries, contacted the governments of Israel and Lebanon and called on “the parties to cease all (military) actions their”. “Both sides have indicated that they do not want war,” she added in a statement.

The Israeli army, for its part, stated that it has no intention of “allowing the terrorist organization Hamas to operate from the territory of Lebanon”, declaring that it “holds the Lebanese state responsible” for any attack against Israeli territory “from the territory of”.

Condemning in “the strongest possible way the Israeli attack on the besieged Gaza Strip and Lebanon”, Hamas, in power in Gaza since 2007, emphasized that it considers Israel “absolutely responsible for the consequences of this very serious attack”.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip spoke of “damages” at Al Dora Children’s Hospital (in the eastern part of Gaza City) after the Israeli strikes, denouncing the “unacceptable” action of the Israeli forces. Asked about the complaint by AFP, the Israeli military had no comment.

“Explosion instead of explosion”

“Every explosion will be retaliated with an explosion (…) every attack against Al-Aqsa or (Muslim) believers will be retaliated,” announced the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for its part.

Lebanon’s foreign ministry stressed that the country wants to maintain “calm and stability” in the southern part of the country, calling on the international community to “put pressure on Israel to stop the escalation.”

Earlier yesterday, the Shiite faction Hezbollah, which de facto controls southern Lebanon, emphasized that it supports “all measures” of the Palestinian organizations against Israel and that it “strongly condemns the attacks of the Israeli occupation forces” against the Al-Aqsa Islamic mosque.

Visiting Lebanon, the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, emphasized that the Palestinians will not remain “with crossed arms” in the face of Israel’s “attacks” on Al-Aqsa.

“If the Zionists think they can desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they must understand (…) that this will ignite the whole region,” warned Hashem Safieddin, Hezbollah’s leader.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military launched airstrikes overnight, notably hitting underground tunnels, a heavy artillery and Hamas weapons-making workshops.

In response, there were several rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip, to intercept which Israeli air defense arrays were activated.