After Brief Calm, Hezbollah Fires 40 Rockets Against Northern Israel

Nearly 48 hours of relative quiet likely fueled hopes for calm on the Lebanon-Israel border over the past couple of days. It wasn’t totally quiet, of course, as Israel continued to launch attacks on towns in the Tyre District. But there was no rocket fire into Israel. Sadly, that was not to last.

Friday saw a return to the tit-for-tat violence that has been the norm for months, with 40 rockets fired against northern Israel. Hezbollah reported they were targeting Mesgav Am and hit it directly, though Israel, as usual, claimed no damage and no casualties.

Videos showed Iron Dome was activated to intercept as many rockets as possible, and rocket sirens sounded in Galilee, close to the Lebanese border. Drone sirens were also reported to have sounded in nearby towns.

Israel artillery, of course, fired against the sources of the rockets, one of which was reportedly a residential neighborhood in Houla. Without doubt this added to the over 1,000 houses already damaged in Israeli attacks against southern Lebanon.

Israel further attacked what they referred to as Hezbollah military compounds in Ayta ash-Shaab and Taybeh. Terrorists were claimed to be operating in the compounds at the time of the attacks.

The international community continues to try to broker an end to these attacks, hoping to preclude a full-scale Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. So far, such efforts have not made measurable progress, though the Lebanese government is said to have endorsed the idea of not going to war.

The expectation has been that any serious truce talks in Lebanon must come after a Gaza Strip ceasefire.  As this hasn’t materialized, and Ramadan is nearly over, peace looks increasingly elusive.