BEIRUT, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah claimed on Friday that it had bombed a major air and missile defense base in northern Israel, achieving a "direct" hit.
"In response to the attack and assassination by the enemy in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, the Islamic Resistance fighters bombarded the main air-defense missile base of its Northern Command in the Berea barracks on Friday, with volleys of Katyusha rockets, hitting the target directly and setting parts of it ablaze," the Shiite group stated.
Hezbollah noted that the Berea barracks, located northeast of Safed city in the Upper Galilee region, northern Israel, are about 12 km from the Lebanese border.
The barracks are considered a main air-defense missile base of Israel's Northern Command, where its Patriot and Iron Dome battalions are headquartered and the command and control center for its air defense missile system is located, according to Hezbollah.
Unnamed Lebanese military sources reported Thursday that an Israeli drone fired an air-to-ground missile at two motorcycles and a passing car in Nabatieh, killing three individuals and wounding three others.
Lebanese Public Health Ministry confirmed the strike and casualties, saying a child was among the victims.
On Friday, Hezbollah mourned at dawn for two of its members, identified as Sajid Muhammad Mustafa and Sadiq Mustafa Mubarak, but provided no details about the circumstances of their deaths.
Meanwhile, military sources told Xinhua that early in the day, Israeli forces carried out five airstrikes on five border towns and villages in southern Lebanon and shelled eight others in the area, while the Emergency Operations Center of the Public Health Ministry reported two injured in an Israeli dawn attack on the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras village.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before.
Israel then retaliated by pounding southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah builds numerous weapons caches, tunnels, and bunkers, with heavy artillery. ■
