Hezbollah Shelling on Israel Resumes Intensity after Repairing its Military Machine

A giant banner depicting a drone bearing the emblem of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah flying above an inhabited area, with text in Hebrew and Persian reading titled "the beginning of bloodlust", is pictured on the facade of a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on August 31, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A giant banner depicting a drone bearing the emblem of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah flying above an inhabited area, with text in Hebrew and Persian reading titled "the beginning of bloodlust", is pictured on the facade of a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on August 31, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TT

Hezbollah Shelling on Israel Resumes Intensity after Repairing its Military Machine

A giant banner depicting a drone bearing the emblem of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah flying above an inhabited area, with text in Hebrew and Persian reading titled "the beginning of bloodlust", is pictured on the facade of a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on August 31, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A giant banner depicting a drone bearing the emblem of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah flying above an inhabited area, with text in Hebrew and Persian reading titled "the beginning of bloodlust", is pictured on the facade of a building in Palestine Square in Tehran on August 31, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group resumed its attacks on Israel and intensified its military operations after repairing its military machine damaged in the “preemptive” strike carried out by the Israeli army last Sunday.
Israel said its “preemptive” strikes had targeted the party’s rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.
Field sources in southern Lebanon told Asharq Al-Awsat that Hezbollah repaired its military machine after the strike, which allowed it to resume launching rockets at Israel.
Four days following the Israeli attack, the group focused on using drone explosives and artillery shells to target gatherings of Israeli soldiers near military positions opposite the Lebanese border.

On Thursday, Hezbollah resumed rocket launches with greater intensity. The operations significantly increased on Friday.
The Markaziya news agency reported that Hezbollah launched Falaq and Katyusha rockets at Israeli military sites in the Galilee for the first time since the escalation last Sunday.
Hezbollah’s renewed intensity suggests that the party has "rehabilitated its military machine," which was subjected to heavy bombing on Sunday morning following a wide-scale Israeli attack involving dozens of airstrikes and hundreds of aircraft, aimed at thwarting retaliation for the assassination of its military commander, Fuad Shukr.
Israel has reportedly observed a sharp decrease in the intensity of the bombardment. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that "since the preemptive strike against Hezbollah, the lowest number of rocket launches on the north has been recorded”.
On Saturday morning, sirens were sounded in Misgav Am and Malkiya along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli Army Radio reported that three rockets fell in open areas in the Upper Galilee, without any reports of injuries.
Lebanese media outlets said that around 40 missiles were launched from Lebanon towards Israel, making it the heaviest barrage since last Sunday.



3 Israeli Police Officers Killed in West Bank Shooting

A view of rubble on the street after Israeli bulldozers destroyed streets and shops on the fifth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 01 September 2024. (EPA)
A view of rubble on the street after Israeli bulldozers destroyed streets and shops on the fifth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 01 September 2024. (EPA)
TT

3 Israeli Police Officers Killed in West Bank Shooting

A view of rubble on the street after Israeli bulldozers destroyed streets and shops on the fifth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 01 September 2024. (EPA)
A view of rubble on the street after Israeli bulldozers destroyed streets and shops on the fifth day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 01 September 2024. (EPA)

Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli police officers on Sunday when they opened fire on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has carried out large-scale raids in recent days.

The attack took place along a road in the southern West Bank. The raids have mainly been focused on urban refugee camps in the northern part of the territory, where Israeli forces have traded fire with gunmen on a near-daily basis since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

The police confirmed that all three killed were officers and said the assailants slipped away. A little-known armed group calling itself the Khalil al-Rahman Brigade claimed responsibility. Hamas praised the attack as a “natural response” to the war in Gaza and called for more.

The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Over 650 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, mainly during Israeli military arrest raids. Most appear to have been fighters involved in gunbattles with Israeli forces, but civilian bystanders and rock-throwing protesters have also been killed.

The last 10 months have also seen an uptick in settler violence directed at Palestinians and in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state, but the last serious peace talks collapsed more than 15 years ago.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble suburbs and small towns. Over 500,000 settlers with Israeli citizenship live in the settlements, which most of the international community considers illegal.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centers.