Lebanon’s Hezbollah Launches Drone Attacks on Israel, Says More to Come

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah Launches Drone Attacks on Israel, Says More to Come

29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)
29 July 2024, Lebanon, Qlayaa: Heavy smoke billow from the Lebanese southern border village of Kfar Kila after it was targeted by Israeli shelling. (dpa)

Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah launched a series of drone and rocket attacks into northern Israel on Tuesday but warned that its much-anticipated retaliation for Israel's killing of a top commander last week was yet to come.

Hezbollah said it launched a swarm of attack drones at two military sites near Acre in northern Israel, and also attacked an Israeli military vehicle in another location.

The Israeli military said a number of hostile drones were identified crossing from Lebanon and one was intercepted. It said several civilians were injured to the south of the coastal city of Nahariya. Reuters TV footage showed one impact site near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.

In a statement, the Israeli military said sirens sounded around Acre, but that turned out to be a false alarm. It said its air force struck two Hezbollah facilities in south Lebanon.

Fears are rising that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war following vows by Hezbollah to avenge Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr's killing, and by Iran to respond to the assassination in Tehran last week of the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

A Hezbollah source told Reuters that "the response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr has not yet come."

Earlier on Tuesday, four people were killed in a strike on a home in the Lebanese town of Mayfadoun, nearly 30 km (19 miles) north of the border, medics and a security source said.

Two additional security sources said those killed were Hezbollah fighters, but the group had not yet posted its usual death notices.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been trading fire for the last 10 months in parallel with the Gaza war, with the tit-for-tat strikes mostly limited to the border area.

Last week, Israel killed Shukr, Hezbollah's senior-most military commander, in a strike on the group's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital Beirut.

Hezbollah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed revenge, but said the response would be "studied." He is set to speak on Tuesday at the one-week memorial for Shukr.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese caretaker government is trying to prevent a Hezbollah response against Israel that could start a wider war, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Tuesday during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart.



Air France, Transavia Extend Beirut Flight Suspension through at least Thursday

This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Air France, Transavia Extend Beirut Flight Suspension through at least Thursday

This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
This combination of pictures created on August 03, 2024 shows a Transavia Boeing 737-800 parked on the tarmac at Paris Orly airport on June 26, 2020 and Air France planes parked during an Air France pilots strike on the tarmac of Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy on September 24, 2014. (Photo by ERIC PIERMONT and STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Air France said Tuesday that its flights and that of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia to Beirut will be suspended through at least Thursday because of fears that the Gaza war could spread.

The resumption of flights to Lebanon's capital, which have been halted since July 29, "will be subject to a new assessment of the local situation," the airline told AFP.

The two French airlines first stopped servicing the route after Israel vowed to retaliate following rocket fire from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Tensions have soared further in the past week as Iran and its allies vowed revenge for the high-profile killings of Hezbollah's top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, both blamed on Israel.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israeli forces across the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Air France said it "is constantly monitoring developments in the geopolitical situation of the territories served and overflown by its aircraft, to ensure the highest level of flight safety and security."

The airline added "the safety of its customers and crews is its number one priority."

Air France said customers with reservations for flights to or from Beirut scheduled before and including August 18 to postpone or cancel their trip free of charge.

German carrier Lufthansa has suspended flights to Beirut, Tehran and Tel Aviv until August 12.

Air France said its flights to and from Tel Aviv are operating normally.