The Israel will take all necessary measures to defend itself, Israel’s prime minister said Benjamin Netanyahu at the emergency security council meeting following her attack Hezbollah early Sunday morning with 320 rockets and drones on northern Israel in retaliation for the killing of Fouad Shukr in Beirut about three weeks ago.

“We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, return the people of the north safely to their homes and continue to adhere to one simple rule: Whoever hurts us, we hurt them,” he said.

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, three people were killed by Israeli shellingone in a hit targeting a car in the village of Hiam and the other two in the village of Tyros.

The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahwill deliver a televised message at 6 p.m.

Normally the meeting in Cairo

Although it is unclear what turn the talks in Cairo will take on a ceasefire in Gaza, an Israeli official said today that despite the escalation with Lebanon, the negotiations will go ahead as planned.

Israel’s negotiating team – Mossad director, Shin Bet chief and IDF commander Nijan Alon – expected to travel to Cairo later today to meet with CIA director William Burns, Qatar’s prime minister and intelligence chief services of Egypt.

According to what was reported by SKAI’s envoy to Israel, Stavros Ioannidis, the Israeli forces had information about the Hezbollah strike and thus a few minutes before the launches began, 100 Israeli warplanes attack at least 40 positions in southern Lebanon destroying rocket and missile launchers that the military said were aimed not only at northern Israel, but some of them were set to launch attacks into central Israel as well.

The Hezbollah strike caused damage to houses, either from the rockets or from intercepting the rockets. There is no information about the dead.

Israel for the next 48 hours will be on high alert, mainly in the north.

For the time being, it seems that a wider conflagration in the Middle East has been avoided after the de-escalation movement on the part of Hezbollah, which for about 20 days has been announcing retaliation for the assassination of Fouad Soukr in Beirut. However, in the statement issued by Hezbollah, it spoke of the first phase of its attack against Israel.

Hezbollah’s top commander Fuad Soukr was found dead in the rubble of a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut after an Israeli strike on Tuesday, July 30.

On August 8, the American network CNN reported that Israeli officials believed that the Hezbollahand not the Iranwould be the first to launch a major attack on Israel.

Citing two sources, CNN reported that Hezbollah appears increasingly ready to act against Israel “regardless” of an expected Iranian response to the recent killings of Shukr and Haniya.