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Hezbollah Resumes Steady Rocket, Artillery Fire against Israel

Israeli soldiers stand near an army self-propelled artillery vehicle on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona near Israel's border with Lebanon on July 6, 2023. © Jalaa Marey, AFP
Israeli soldiers stand near an army self-propelled artillery vehicle on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona near Israel's border with Lebanon on July 6, 2023. © Jalaa Marey, AFP
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Hezbollah Resumes Steady Rocket, Artillery Fire against Israel

Israeli soldiers stand near an army self-propelled artillery vehicle on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona near Israel's border with Lebanon on July 6, 2023. © Jalaa Marey, AFP
Israeli soldiers stand near an army self-propelled artillery vehicle on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona near Israel's border with Lebanon on July 6, 2023. © Jalaa Marey, AFP

Hezbollah forces on Friday resumed rocket and artillery attacks against Israel, ending the lull along the border following Israel's killing of the Lebanese group's military commander in Beirut.

Hezbollah said it had fired a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli warplane flying in Lebanese airspace overnight and forced it to turn back. Its forces also carried out two artillery attacks and two rocket strikes at military positions in northern Israel, it said, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military said in a statement it had successfully intercepted an aerial target coming from Lebanon into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire hit several villages in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to Lebanese state media, a day after an Israeli strike killed at least five Syrian migrant workers in southern Lebanon, according to medics.

The Israeli military also said it had hit two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in an address on Thursday that he had ordered calm along the border following the Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday that killed military commander Fuad Shukr out of respect for the victims and to consider what the next steps should be.

The strike on the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh in Beirut's southern suburbs also killed an Iranian military adviser and five civilians.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would retaliate but it would need to study what their response would be, and would otherwise resume its usual military operations against Israel.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading fire for nearly 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war, with exchanges mostly limited to the border area.

But strikes since last week have threatened to tip the conflict into a full-scale regional war.

Israel and the United States have accused Hezbollah of killing 12 youths in a July 27 rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a claim Hezbollah has denied.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, told Reuters on Friday it had not investigated the incident as the Israeli-occupied Golan is outside its mandated area of operations.

 

 

 

 

 

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Arab World

Airlines Avoid Some Mideast Airspace, Cancel Flights

People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Airlines Avoid Some Mideast Airspace, Cancel Flights

People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk with their luggage as they arrive at the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport, in Beirut, Lebanon July 30, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Airlines are avoiding Iranian and Lebanese airspace and cancelling flights to Israel and Lebanon, as concerns grow over a possible conflict in the region after the killing of senior Hamas and Hezbollah members this week.

Singapore Airlines on Friday appeared to no longer be using Iranian airspace for any of its routes, according to flight tracker Flightradar24.

Taiwan's EVA Air and China Airlines also appeared to be avoiding Iran airspace for flights to Amsterdam on Friday which previously had flown over Iran, Flightradar24 data showed.

In a bulletin, OPSGROUP, a membership-based organization that shares flight risk information, advised traffic between Asia and Europe to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace, a day after sources told Reuters that top Iranian officials will meet the representatives of Iran's regional allies from Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen to discuss potential retaliation against Israel.

Many airlines, including US and European airlines, already avoid flying over Iran, especially since the reciprocal missile and drone attacks in April between Iran and Israel.

Singapore Airlines' flight to London Heathrow early on Friday went north of Iran through Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, rather than crossing through Iran as it did the day before, Flightradar24 showed.

However, a significant number of airlines on Friday were still flying over Iran, including United Arab Emirates carriers Etihad, Emirates and FlyDubai, as well as Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

Over the past two days, Air India, Germany's Lufthansa Group, US carriers United Airlines and Delta Air, and Italy's ITA Airways said they had suspended flights to Tel Aviv.

Airlines this week have also been cancelling and delaying flights to the Lebanese capital Beirut after a strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Israel has blamed the attack on Hezbollah, which denied involvement.

Canada on Thursday issued a notice to Canadian aircraft to avoid Lebanese airspace for one month due to the risk to aviation from military activity.

Britain has for the past month advised pilots of potential risk from anti-aircraft weaponry and military activity in Lebanon's airspace.

Should an all-out war break out in the Middle East, OpsGroup said civil aviation will likely face the risk of drones and missiles crossing airways, as well as the increased risk of GPS spoofing - a growing phenomena around Lebanon and Israel where militaries and other actors broadcast signals that trick a plane's GPS system into thinking it is somewhere it is not.