Jerusalem. The Israeli army has instructed residents of dozens of northern communities to stay near shelters and avoid non-essential outdoor activities due to possible “retaliation” from Hezbollah. Thousands of pagers and handheld radios used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday. Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad said the blasts killed at least 37 people and injured 2,931. Although Israel has not claimed responsibility for the explosions, Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate, blaming Israel for the incidents. Residents of the Upper Galilee and the occupied Golan Heights have been requested to reduce their activities on Thursday night, avoid gatherings, monitor the entrances to communities and stay near shelters, according to news agency Xinhua. The unusual restrictions were issued by the Home Front Command after dozens of Israeli warplanes carried out one of the largest-scale attacks in Lebanon.
After several hours of intensive attacks that began in the afternoon, just before midnight the Israeli Army announced that the operation was complete. The army said the air force had destroyed “100 rocket launchers with about 1,000 barrels”. The army said it would continue operations to “destroy Hezbollah’s infrastructure and capabilities”. Meanwhile, Lebanese military sources said on Thursday evening that Israeli fighter jets carried out about 60 airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon, and about 50 Katyusha rockets were fired at northern Israel in response. The war to occupy the Gaza Strip has been going on since Hamas attacked Israel on October 8, 2023. Hezbollah continued attacks against Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Rockets were fired at Israel, after which Israel retaliated and continued to retaliate in southeastern Lebanon.