Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel would take all measures necessary to defend itself, after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior commander.
"We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him," he said in a statement.
Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it said was a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah, as the group said it had launched hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of Fouad Shukr, one of its founders, in Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said around 100 Israeli aircraft took part in Sunday’s strikes.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared a “special situation on the home front.”
