Hezbollah missiles strike Meron air control base in northern Israel<\/p>\n
Lebanon\u2019s Hezbollah resistance group says it has hit an Israeli aerial surveillance base with scores of missiles in its first response to Tel Aviv\u2019s assassination of a deputy political leader of Hamas. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAt 08:10 AM on Saturday, January 6, 2024, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted the Meron Aerial Surveillance Base with 62 missiles of various types, inflicting direct and confirmed hits,\u201d Hezbollah said in a statement.<\/p>\n The movement described the operation \u201cas a preliminary response\u201d to the Israeli assassination of \u201cgreat leader Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri and his martyr brothers\u201d in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh.<\/p>\n According to the statement, the base is the sole center for administration, surveillance, and air control in the northern occupied territories.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is one of two principal bases in the entire usurping entity, the other being Mitzpe Ramon in the south,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Earlier, sirens were\u00a0sounded in northern Israeli cities, warning residents of incoming rockets, media reports said Saturday.<\/p>\n The cities of Shtula, Abirim, Netu\u2019a, Karmiel, Safed were among 94 settlements in Galilee and the occupied Golan Heights put on alert Saturday, they said.<\/p>\n The southern Lebanese border has seen regular exchanges of fire, mainly between Israeli forces and Hezbollah since Tel Aviv launched its ferocious invasion of Gaza in early October.<\/p>\n Arouri’s assassination on Tuesday in southern Beirut, which a US defense official has told AFP was carried out by Israel, has raised fears of further escalation.<\/p>\n The Israeli military said it had identified around 40 rocket launches from Lebanese territory on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n Air raid sirens went off in towns and cities across northern Israel, later also blaring in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.<\/p>\n In a speech Friday, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed\u00a0Hassan Nasrallah had warned Israel that the movement would\u00a0respond swiftly “on the battlefield” to Arouri’s assassination.<\/p>\n Nearly three months of cross-border fire have killed 175 people in Lebanon, including three journalists.<\/p>\n In northern Israel, at least 13 Israelis including nine soldiers\u00a0have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n Nasrallah, however, said Israel is lying about its true number of casualties.<\/p>\n \u201cThe enemy does not acknowledge either fatalities or injuries, and this is part of its policy of general secrecy regarding its losses since October 8,\u201d he said, adding at least 2,000 Israeli soldiers had been wounded on the Lebanese border.<\/p>\n The Lebanese resistance group has carried out 670 operations against Israel over the past three months, he said Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is happening on the Lebanese-Israeli border is unprecedented since 1948,\u201d Nasrallah said in a televised speech.<\/p>\n Israelis in the north, Nasrallah said, should ask their leaders for a ceasefire ifhey wish to be safe.<\/p>\n The Lebanese front is there to alleviate pressure on Hamas and Gaza, and to impose a ceasefire in Gaza, he added.<\/p>\n