For Second Straight Day, Escalating Violence Raged Across Israel-Lebanon Border

Hezbollah replied on Thursday to Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon with a second straight day of sharply ramped-up rocket and drone assaults on Israel, in an intensifying conflict that has raised fears of a full-fledged war.

How many weapons Hezbollah launched on Thursday was unclear, but the group’s Al-Manar broadcaster reported that at one point, more than 100 were fired in a simultaneous, coordinated attack aimed at several Israeli military installations. That included a number of drones aimed at Israel’s northern military headquarters, Hezbollah said.

Israel’s military said in the afternoon that Hezbollah had sent more than 40 rockets across the border, but the barrage continued well into the evening. Hours later, the military had not updated that number, but a military spokesman called it the most serious attack since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October. He did not immediately elaborate.

At least four people were injured in Thursday’s assault, according to both Israel’s military and its emergency service, Magen David Adom. The military said in the afternoon that its air defenses had shot down many of the weapons fired up to that point, but some had penetrated. The attacks and counterattacks ignited wildfires on both sides of the border.

On Thursday night, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported that an Israeli strike destroyed a house, caused several casualties and started a fire in the town of Jannata, Lebanon, a few miles from the coastal city of Tyre.

On Tuesday, an Israeli strike targeted and killed Taleb Abdullah, one of the senior commanders of Hezbollah, a powerful armed group and political faction backed by Iran. The group pledged to step up its attacks on Israel in retaliation.