Fighting continues to escalate between Israel and Hezbollah

Fighting continued Sunday as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire, with the Iran-backed terrorist organization that dominates much of Lebanon firing rockets into northern Israel while Israeli warplanes carried out its most intense bombardment aimed at Hezbollah since this round of fighting began last year. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that Israel was going after Hezbollah in ways it never anticipated. “If Hezbollah did not understand the message, I promise you: It will understand the message,” the prime minister stated on Sunday, according to the Jewish News Syndicate. 

Israel hit Hezbollah with “a series of blows it couldn’t have imagined,” he said.

“We are determined to return our residents to their homes in the north safely. No country can tolerate shooting at its residents, shooting at its cities, and we—the State of Israel—will not tolerate it either,” Netanyahu said.

He added that Israel will do “everything necessary to restore security” in the area near the country’s northern border. 

This round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has occurred since Hezbollah attacked Israel last October, claiming it was acting in solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza who had killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped about 250 more last October 7 in the largest terrorist attack ever against Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah are both proxies of Iran. 

The attacks on Sunday come just two days after an Israeli airstrike targeted Hezbollah commanders in a suburb of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, according to Reuters, which reports that the death toll from that strike had risen to 45, citing the Lebanese health ministry.

Hezbollah said 16 members including senior leader Ibrahim Aqil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed on Friday in the deadliest strike in nearly a year of conflict with Israel.

Aqil had a $7 million bounty on his head from the U.S. State Department for two 1983 Beirut truck bombings at the American embassy and a US Marines barracks, killing more than 300 people, according to The Times of Israel.

Hezbollah said it launched rockets at Israel's military-industrial facilities this week as an "initial response" to the attacks in which walkie-talkies and pagers used by its members exploded, killing 39 and injuring more than 3,000 according to Reuters. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any involvement in those attacks.