Israel has said it carried out a wave of pre-emptive strikes across southern Lebanon to thwart a large-scale rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah said it had still managed to fire 320 rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of a senior commander.
There have been almost daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the day after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza on 7 October.
Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of the Palestinian group, which is also backed by Iran.
Israel’s attack on Hezbollah at around 4:30am on Sunday was its biggest since the full-scale war between them in 2006.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said about 100 fighter jets had “struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels” in more than 40 areas of southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli aircraft had struck Beaufort Castle, the Bir Kalb area, and the outskirts of the towns of Ain Qana, Kfar Fila, Louaizeh, Bsalia, Kfar Melki, Sajd and Sarba.
Not long after the Israeli strikes, Hezbollah said it had targeted and hit 11 Israeli military facilities in Israel and the occupied Golan Heights with more than 320 Katyusha rockets.
It described the barrage as a response to the assassination of senior military commander Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike in Beirut on 30 July.
The group said the operation had been “completed and accomplished” and it dismissed as “empty” Israel’s statements that its strikes on Sunday had thwarted a larger attack.
Later, the IDF announced that an Israeli Navy soldier had fallen “during combat in northern Israel”, without providing further details.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address on Sunday evening that the group had targeted a military intelligence base about 110km into Israeli territory, which was only 1.5km away from Tel Aviv.
He said Hezbollah had been able to carry out its attack as planned, and all drones had been launched successfully, entering Israeli airspace.
He warned that the group would respond again if the results were deemed to be not enough.
