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HEZBOLLAH fired more than 320 rockets at Israel overnight in a sinister revenge attack for the assassination of a senior commander last month.
In response, Israeli fighter jets scrambled to launch a barrage of withering air strikes at Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon in what it dubbed an “act of self-defence”.
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The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have engaged in tit-for-tat strikes with Iran-backed Hezbollah for 10 months since war broke out in Gaza.
But last night’s firefight is a major escalation that threatens to trigger an all-out war which could draw in the United States, Iran and militant groups across the region.
Sirens blasted across northern Israel as the army’s advanced Iron Dome Defence system obliterated Hezbollah rockets mid-air.
Hezbollah issued a chilling statement after the attacks saying they had completed the “first phase” of a revenge campaign against Israel.
The terror group, Iran’s largest proxy army in the Middle East, claimed to have hit 11 Israeli military targets.
Flights were axed to and from Israel’s primary Ben Gurion airport as the chaos unfolded – although they have since resumed.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said “dozens” of warplanes struck more than 40 launch areas in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah operations are mostly focused amid civilian populations.
He said: “We are ready to do everything we need to defend the people of Israel.”
Hagari later revealed that 100 fighter jets “attacked and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah’s firing canisters, most most of them aimed towards the north of the country and some also towards central Israel”.
State media in Lebanon said one person was killed in an air strike fired from Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning: “We are determined to do everything possible to defend our country, to return the residents of the north safely to their homes and to continue to uphold a simple rule: Whoever harms us – we harm him.”
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