BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said on Tuesday it launched over 100 rockets at Israel’s two military bases in retaliation for a strike on the country’s east that killed one person the day before.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since the Gaza war erupted in October, but several Israeli strikes have recently hit Hezbollah positions further north, raising fears of a full-blown conflict.

Hezbollah launched more than 100 Katyusha rockets on Tuesday morning at two military bases in the occupied Golan Heights, the group said in a statement.

This was in response to the Israeli attacks on our people, villages and cities, most recently near the city of Baalbek and the killing of a citizen“, it added.

Qatar says Israel, Hamas not near a deal to halt fighting in Gaza

On Monday, Israeli air strikes near Lebanon’s city of Baalbek killed one person. The Israeli military confirmed its jets had hit two sites belonging to Hezbollah’s forces in retaliation for strikes on the occupied Golan Heights over several days.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah said its chief Seyed Hassan Nasrallah met Khalil al-Hayya, a leading member of Hamas’s political bureau.

They discussed ceasefire talks for the Gaza war, as well as attacks by Hamas’s regional allies to support its war efforts, the Hezbollah said in a statement.

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah is due to give a televised speech on Wednesday.

Hezbollah has repeatedly said it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s goal of pushing Hezbollah out of south Lebanon.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, at least 317 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also 54 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon.

In Israel, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in the cross-border hostilities.

Qatar says Israel, Hamas not near Gaza deal

Qatar said on Tuesday Israel and Hamas are not close to a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and free hostages, warning that the situation remained “very complicated”.

Despite weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, holy month of Ramazan began on Monday without the start of a truce and hostage exchange they had aimed for.

“We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal,” said Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

All parties were “continuing to work in the negotiations to reach a deal hopefully within the confines of Ramazan”, Ansari told a news conference.

But he added that he could not “offer any timeline” on an agreement while the conflict remained “very complicated on the ground”. Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, is also the main residence of Hamas self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Hamas deputy leader attacked

Israel said on Monday it was checking whether it had killed Hamas’s deputy military leader in an airstrike in Gaza.

If his death is confirmed, Marwan Issa will be the highest-ranking Hamas official killed by Israel in five months of war that has pulverised Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Issa, known as the ‘Shadow Man’ for his ability to stay out of sight, was one of three top Hamas leaders who are believed to have been directing Hamas military operations.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Israel had bombed the Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday night following intelligence about the location of Issa, second-in-command of Hamas military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades.

Two Hamas leaders — Issa and another commander in Gaza — used the underground compound that Israeli jets struck in a joint operation with Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Hagari said.

A Palestinian source said the Israelis had hit a place where they thought Issa was hiding, but could give no details of his fate.

“There still aren’t indications with certainty,” Chili Tropper, an Israeli cabinet minister, told Israel’s Channel 13 television on Monday.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024