Hamas
and Iran have vowed to retaliate for the assassination of the group’s political
bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, while Hezbollah pledged to respond to
the killing of its commander, Faud Shukr, in Beirut.
Fears have grown about a full-blown war between Israel and
Hezbollah amid a months-long exchange of cross-border fire.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of an Israeli
onslaught in Gaza, which has caused nearly 40,000 deaths since October 2023.
According to the Tehran Times, Lebanon's Hezbollah announced
on Sunday that it had targeted a new settlement inside occupied Palestine as
part of ongoing operations in solidarity with Gaza.
In a
statement, the Lebanese resistance movement explained that it had added the
settlement of Beit Hillel to its current range of fire and targeted it for the
first time with dozens of Katyusha rockets.
Beit Hillel is a settlement in the north, about five
kilometers away from Kiryat Shmona, which is closer to the Lebanese border and
has been under constant Hezbollah fire.
The
extent of attacks on Kiryat Shmona saw Israelis flee the settlement to Tel Aviv
and elsewhere. They have been replaced by the Israeli occupation forces who
have gone into hiding amid ongoing precision strikes by Hezbollah.
The Lebanese resistance emphasized that targeting Beit
Hillel for the first time was a response to Israeli assaults "on the
steadfast southern villages and safe homes".
The
statement added that the new operation was carried out especially after the
Israeli military waged attacks on the southern Lebanese villages of Kfarkela
and Deir Siriane (Marjeyoun District), which injured civilians.
Hezbollah reaffirmed that targeting a new settlement also
comes alongside its support for Gaza and the Palestinian resistance.
According to the Lebanese news agency NNA, the Lebanese
resistance has said its fighters carried out a "direct hit" on
Israeli surveillance equipment in the settlement of Ramya, destroying the
equipment.
The ramifications
of the Lebanese resistance’s moves against the Israeli occupation regime have
been covered by The Financial Times, the British newspaper.
Based on satellite images, the newspaper said, the Israelis
have sustained severe damages after ten months of confrontations with
Hezbollah.
The newspaper pointed out that Hezbollah's operations led to
the largest evacuation in the northern occupied Israeli territories since the
"establishment of Israel" more than 75 years ago, reporting that
Hezbollah's fire caused damage to buildings, crops, and commercial
activities.
Reports have also cited data from the Israeli army that
showed Hezbollah had deployed only a small fraction of its massive arsenal
between October 2023 and mid-July 2024, launching about 6,700 rockets and 340
drones at the north, while confirming that the impact was widespread and
significant.
Hezbollah has carried out some 2,500 military operations
targeting occupation sites, settlements, and military posts on the other side
of the Lebanese border.
This covers over 300 days of military support operations
from October 8, 2023, to August 3, 2024, according to a new report from
Hezbollah's military media.
Hezbollah has vowed to avenge the assassination of its
senior commander Faud Shukr in Beirut's suburb last week.
In a speech, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Seyyed
Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to retaliate but has kept Tel Aviv waiting on the
nature of the response.
Analysts say the vague warning by Seyyed Nasrallah has also
left the Israelis in a state of fear and panic.
