Dozens of rockets were launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel late Thursday, in the first attack since top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed by Israeli strike earlier this week in Beirut.
According to Israel's public broadcaster, KAN, the rockets were fired towards the Western Galilee, with 15 being intercepted by Israeli defences.
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An Israeli army statement confirmed that five projectiles crossed from Lebanon into Israel, with some being intercepted and the rest falling in open areas. No injuries were reported.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militant group, has yet to comment on the incident.
The rocket attack comes after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned on Thursday that the conflict with Israel had entered a "new phase". He made the remarks while addressing mourners at the funeral of a Hezbollah commander killed by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut earlier this week.
In Tehran, Iran's Supreme Leader has led prayers over the body of Hamas' political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in a suspected Israeli assassination on Wednesday.
The back-to-back killings of top militant leaders have heightened fears of a wider conflict in the region, as attention turns to how Iran and its ally Hezbollah will respond.
Iran has pledged to retaliate against Israel for Haniyeh's killing, which occurred in the Iranian capital. While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assassination, comments by Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari fell short of an outright denial.
'Very-Well Studied Retaliation'
In a speech via video link to mourners gathered with Shukur's coffin at an auditorium in a Beirut suburb, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said, “We...have entered a new phase that is different from the previous period.”
“Do they expect that Hajj Ismail Haniyeh will be killed in Iran and Iran will remain silent?” he said of the Israelis. Addressing Israelis who celebrated the two killings, he said, “Laugh a bit and you will cry a lot.”
Nasrallah kept his comments vague, vowing a “very-well studied retaliation” without saying what form it would take. He said only that Israel “will have to wait for the anger of the region's honourable people.”
“The enemy and the one who is behind the enemy” — an apparent reference to Israel's chief ally, the United States — “will have to wait for our coming response,” he said.
