Israel, Lebanon have intense cross-border rocket exchange

Media reports say Israel and Lebanon traded volleys of airstrikes across Israel’s northern border Friday in some of the most intense exchanges since the conflict in the Gaza Strip began more than 11 months ago.

Israeli media reported that Lebanon shelled northern Israel with 150 rockets early Friday, although officials say there were no reports of injuries, as many of the projectiles were intercepted. The Times of Israel reported the Israeli army told civilians to limit their movement outside homes and avoid gatherings.

Lebanese media on Friday reported a fresh wave of Israeli strikes in retaliation, which follow a similarly intense wave of Israeli strikes late Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, posted a video to its X and Telegram social media accounts that it said showed a “Hezbollah terrorist” entering what the IDF said was a Hezbollah military structure near Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon.

Shortly after the figure enters the building, it is destroyed in a blast that the post said was caused by an Israeli aircraft.

The IDF also indicated it had conducted a targeted strike in Beirut. In a post to its X account, Lebanese news service L'Orient Today posted footage it said was taken in a Beirut suburb of damage caused by the airstrikes.

In a statement, the IDF said the strike, based on intelligence, had killed the head of Hezbollah’s operations unit, Ibrahim Aqil, along with two commanders of its elite Radwan forces.

The IDF said Aqil began his involvement with Hezbollah in the 1980’s, and played a role in many terror activities, including the terror attack on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 and several attacks in northern Israel in recent years.

The exchanges late Thursday and Friday came despite international calls for restraint. The United Kingdom has called for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, and White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday the United States is “afraid and concerned about potential escalation.”

Other top U.S. officials said they do not believe such an escalation is inevitable.

“We still believe that there is time and space for a diplomatic solution,” White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Friday.

“War is not inevitable up there at the blue line [between Israel and Lebanon], and we're going to continue to do everything we can to try to prevent it,” he added, saying the U.S. is continuing with what he described as “intense diplomacy” to lower tensions.

As for the Israeli airstrike targeting Beirut, Kirby said the U.S. was not involved and was not given advanced notification by Israel.

“I am certainly not aware of any prenotification of those strikes,” he said, calling it “not atypical.”

Retaliation vows

Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed retaliation Thursday against Israel for the detonations of electronic devices that killed at least 37 people this week. Nasrallah acknowledged the explosive attacks in Lebanon on the militant group’s communications devices were a “severe blow,” while contending that Israel had crossed a “red line” in carrying out the operation.

In a Friday report, Reuters said Hezbollah leaders were still handing out new Gold Apollo-branded pagers to the organization’s members hours before thousands of the devices exploded on Tuesday.

The report indicated the group was confident the pagers were safe despite an ongoing sweep of electronic kits to identify threats.

One of the sources told Reuters that some Hezbollah members had received new pagers Monday that exploded the next day while still boxed.

The attacks killed at least 37 people and wounded an additional 3,000 as unsuspecting Hezbollah militants and others answered messages on their pagers and tried to carry on conversations via walkie-talkie, only to have them explode in their hands.

The handheld device attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday were widely believed to be carried out by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, although Israel has neither confirmed nor denied being involved.

"Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow," Nasrallah said. "The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines.”

As usual, Nasrallah spoke by video from an undisclosed location. Iran-backed Hezbollah, which typically convenes rallies for supporters to watch his speeches on a big screen, did not do so this time.

Because of the lethal devastation from the device attacks, Lebanon has banned passengers flying from Beirut’s international airport from carrying pagers or walkie-talkies on board their flights. The ban applies to checked and carry-on luggage, as well as cargo.

Security experts this week told Western media outlets that Mossad agents are thought to have intercepted a shipment of the pagers from a company in the Hungarian capital of Budapest to add the explosives to the devices before they arrived in Lebanon for distribution among Hezbollah members.

A New York Times account disputed that scenario, however, reporting that its sources in the intelligence community said Israel created a front company, B.A.C. Consulting, to manufacture the electronic devices with explosive PETN-laced batteries that could be detonated remotely.

The company produced some ordinary pagers for sale on the commercial market, the newspaper said, but its singular aim was to manufacture the lethal devices to deploy in Israel’s fight against Hezbollah.

The first batches of the pagers were shipped to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Nasrallah denounced the use of cellphones because they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence and the low-tech pagers and walkie-talkies could not.

Hsu Ching-Kuang, founder of Taiwan-based manufacturer Gold Apollo, told reporters Wednesday his company did not manufacture the pagers, even though its corporate markings were on them when the remains of the exploded devices were examined Tuesday.

He said Gold Apollo had authorized its brand to be used on devices produced and sold by B.A.C. in Budapest.

Assassination plot foiled

Meanwhile, Israel’s military announced the arrest of an Israeli citizen suspected of involvement in an Iran-backed plot to kill Israeli officials.

Israeli authorities said in a statement that the person arrested was a businessman with connections in Turkey who attended at least two meetings in Iran and that potential targets of the plot included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

The arrest took place last month, the statement said.

International moves

Gallant said Thursday he spoke by telephone with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the situation in the region, including “Israel’s defense against Hezbollah threats.”

The Pentagon said Austin reiterated “unwavering U.S. support for Israel in the face of threats” from Iran, Hezbollah and other Iranian partners in the region.

“The secretary emphasized the U.S. commitment to deterring regional adversaries and efforts to de-escalate tensions across the region,” a Pentagon spokesperson said.

Following diplomatic talks in Paris on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Tonight, I’m calling for an immediate cease-fire from both sides,” he told Reuters. “We are very, very clear that we want to see a negotiated political settlement so that Israelis can return to their homes in northern Israel and, indeed, Lebanese to return to their homes.”

The pager and walkie-talkie attacks followed Israel’s announcement that it was broadening of its goals in the war against Hamas militants in Gaza to include the securing of northern Israel from Hezbollah rocket attacks.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.