Hezbollah launches ‘dozens of rockets at Israel’

Hezbollah launches rockets at Israel in support of Palestinians, escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Hezbollah said on August 3 it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israel, the latest in a series of attacks it says is in support of the Palestinian people.

The Iran-backed group said its latest attack, on Beit Hillel in northern Israel, was in response to Israel's attacks on Kfar Kela and Deir Siriane in Lebanon which, it said, had injured civilians there.

Middle East tensions soared as Iran and its allies readied their response to the assassination of Hamas's political leader, blamed on Israel, spurring fears of a regional war.

Israel’s ally the United States said it would move warships and fighter jets to the region, while Western governments called on their citizens to leave Lebanon — where the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement is based — and airlines cancelled flights.

The killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, hours after the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah's military chief in Beirut, has triggered vows of vengeance from Iran and the so-called "axis of resistance".

Iran-backed groups from Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have already been drawn into the nearly 10-month war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Israel on Saturday again traded fire with Hezbollah, carried out a deadly raid in the occupied West Bank, and struck a school compound in Gaza City in an attack that the Hamas-ruled territory's civil defence agency said killed at least 17 people.