Hezbollah fired Iranian-made Falaq-2 heavy rockets at Israel for the first time on June 8 following a series of strikes on southern Lebanon that killed four people, including civilians, and wounded five others.
Citing Lebanese military sources, Xinhua reported that two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three civilians were wounded when Israeli strikes hit a house in the town of Houla. Another strike targeted a commercial market in the town of Aitaroun, killing two civilians and wounding two others, according to the Chinese news agency.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced strikes against Hezbollah targets, including posts and rocket launchers, in Houla, Aitaroun as well as in the towns of Chihine, Zibqin, Hanine, Markaba and Rab al-Thalathine during the day and overnight.
Hezbollah mourned two of its fighters, saying in separate statements that they were killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for those killed in the ongoing confrontation with the IDF.
In response to the deadly Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon and in support of the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah carried out ten attacks on June 8.
The group fighters fired Falaq-2 heavy rockets at a headquarters of the IDF in the Beit Hillel base during one of the attacks. The Falaq-2 is a 333 mm rocket with a range of 11 kilometers. The rocket is armed with a 120 kg warhead that holds 60 kg of explosives.
This was the first time Hezbollah launched Falaq-2 rockets at Israel since the start of the clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border on the backdrop of the war on Gaza. A lighter version of the rocket known as the Falaq-1 was used before by the group however.
It’s worth noting that Hezbollah escalated its attacks on Israel in recent weeks as the IDF expanded its ground operations in Gaza.
The clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border have so far resulted in ten civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 15 IDF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 400 people have been killed, including 314 fighters of Hezbollah and at least 80 civilians.
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