JACK GUEZ / AFP
The Israeli flag in Haifa, a city targeted by Lebanese strikes, on September 22, 2024.
INTERNATIONAL – The escalation in the Middle East continues. Hezbollah continued its response against Israel on Tuesday, September 24, after the massive attacks by Tsahal that have been hitting Lebanon for over a week. For three days, the ally of Hamas and Iran has stepped up its strikes and is hitting harder and further.
The movement claimed responsibility for 18 attacks targeting Israeli territory on Tuesday, including the firing of 90 rockets at the headquarters of the Israeli army’s northern command near Safed and explosive drones at a naval base south of Haifa, the major northern port. In Haifa, where the warplanes flew over, schools, universities and shops remained closed, according to an AFP journalist.
The Israeli army gave other figures. “Today, approximately 300 rockets were fired into Israeli (territory), injuring six civilians and soldiers, most of them lightly.”Army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing.
Dozens of strikes over three days
The Hezbollah strikes come a day after Israeli airstrikes of unprecedented intensity. They left 558 dead, including 50 children and 94 women, and 1,835 wounded, according to Lebanese authorities, the highest toll since the 2006 war.
Hezbollah had already attacked Israel this weekend after the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies. It said it had targeted military production facilities and had fired “ dozens of rockets » of type Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 the “ Ramat David base and airport »located deep in Israeli soil, approximately 45 kilometers from the border.
On Monday, in two separate statements, the powerful pro-Iranian party also announced that it had targeted “ the main warehouses » of the army for the northern region of Israel, west of Tiberias, and a military barracks, “ in response to the aggressions of the Israeli enemy” with the help of dozens of rockets.
Thousands of weapons
The use of Fadi-2 for three days shows that the conflict has entered a new phase, as this weapon guarantees a greater range and charge, but without great precision. This is the first time it has been used since the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, which sparked the war that has been raging in the Gaza Strip ever since.
The Iranian Mehr agency, citing Hezbollah, describes a multi-purpose ground-to-ground tactical rocket. The Fadi-1 is 6 meters long with a caliber of 220 mm, and carries an explosive charge of 83 kg with a range of 70 km. The Fadi-2 is the same length but with a caliber of 302 mm. Its charge reaches 170 kg and its range 100 km.
No information was available on Tuesday about their place of manufacture, in Lebanon or abroad.
Fear of a regional conflagration
According to Elliot Chapman, an expert on the region for the British private intelligence company Janes, the unguided rocket “ resembles the Syrian 302mm Khaibar rocket”herself “ Syrian manufactured version of Chinese WS-1 ».
The number of rockets that the pro-Iranian Shiite movement has is not known. But according to various credible estimates, it relies on thousands of these unguided weapons of various types, capable of striking within a radius of 45 to 200 km.
Hezbollah had until now remained careful, despite its regular strikes on northern Israel, not to engage in a frontal war. But the scenario could change due to Israeli operations in southern Lebanon.
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