Hezbollah announces 'new phase' of escalation against Israel

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has announced the start of a new phase in its retaliatory operations against Israel, which has been conducting strikes on Lebanon and Gaza for more than a year.

In a statement issued early on Friday, the Operations Room of Hezbollah announced “the transition to a new and escalating phase in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.”

According to the statement, the decision was made “based on the directives of the Resistance Command.”

The new phase “will be reflected in the developments and events of the coming days”, it said.

Providing updates about the ongoing resistance against Israeli forces, the movement said clashes between Hezbollah fighters and invading forces left 10 Israeli forces killed and over 150 others injured, as well as nine Merkava tanks and four military bulldozers destroyed earlier this week.

Hezbollah noted that it used precision-guided missiles for the first time in its battle with Israel. The group said its rockets targeted Israeli military positions and barracks along the border between Lebanon and the occupied territories, as well as settlements and cities in the north of the occupied territories.

It added that it used various types of drones, including advanced ones deployed for the first time, in its attacks on Israeli military bases. According to the statement, the movement’s drones also conducted reconnaissance missions.

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The statement further said fighters within the group’s air defense unit shot down two Hermes 450 Israeli spy drones and confronted Israeli military aircraft, “using appropriate weapons,” killing 55 Israeli officers and soldiers and injuring more than 500 others.

It added that 20 Merkava tanks, four military bulldozers, an armored vehicle, and a troop carrier were also destroyed by the fighters.

“This tally does not include the Israeli enemy’s losses in military bases and barracks along the Lebanese-Palestinian border and deep inside Occupied Palestine,” the statement said.

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Israel has been targeting Lebanon since October 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah has been responding to the aggression with numerous retaliatory operations, targeting the occupied Palestinian territories.

Since late September, Israel has escalated its strikes against Hezbollah, assassinating its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and a number of its senior figures.

At least 2,350 people have been killed by Israeli fire, and 10,906 others wounded since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its operations against Israel as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed at least 42,438 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

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