Heavy exchange of fire between Hezbollah, Israel

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire into Sunday, with Israeli warplanes carrying out the most intense bombardment in almost a year of conflict across Lebanon’s south, and Hezbollah firing rockets deep into northern Israel. About 150 rockets, cruise missiles and drones were fired at Israel overnight and into Sunday, most of which were intercepted by air defences, including an “aerial target” that came from the east, the Israeli military said.

The military said it struck around 290 targets on Saturday, including thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels, and that it would continue to hit more. Israel closed schools, restricted gatherings in the north and ordered hospitals there to move patients and staff to protected areas.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said strikes would continue until it was safe for evacuated people in the north to return. Several buildings were struck, including a house badly damaged near the Israeli city of Haifa. Residents had been instructed to stay near bomb shelters and safe rooms.

Hezbollah said it hit a barracks and another Israeli position with squadrons of attack drones on Sunday. It said it launched rockets at military-industrial facilities in an “initial response” to the two days of attacks last week in which pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members exploded. Hezbollah deputy secretary-general Naim Qassem said the group had entered a new phase of its battle with Israel, which he described as an “open-ended battle of reckoning” in comments made during a funeral for a top commander killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had hit Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon in ways it could not imagine. “If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message,” he said, according to a statement from his office.