Hezbollah launches dozens of rockets at important Israeli surveillance base

Attacks comes after Hezbollah confirmed death of fighter Israel says was air defence expert

The aftermath of Israeli shelling in the Lebanese village of Dhayra last week. The tense situation has been escalating since. AFP

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Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets at Israel's sensitive Mount Meron air traffic control and surveillance base after a member of the group was killed on Saturday, in an attack on Lebanon's Beqaa Vallery.

The Lebanese armed group and political party said dozens of Katyusha rockets caused damage to equipment at Meron, which is an important surveillance base in northern Israel.

Hezbollah had previously confirmed the death of a fighter late on Saturday evening who Israel described as a significant member of the group's air defence unit, in a strike deep into Lebanon near the eastern city of Baalbek.

It came as Israel launched heavy air strikes in Lebanon, days into a sharp rise in violence between the two sides.

The group responded on Sunday with a large barrage of rockets into northern Israel, causing fires in tinder dry rural areas.

The powerful Iran-backed militia and Lebanese political party identified Maytham Mustafa Al Attar as the official killed in Saturday's strike. Israel said it had targeted the commander in his car in Baalbek, 100km north of the border with Israel, one of an increasing number of strikes deep into Lebanon, which were once a rarity.

An Israeli army statement claimed he had been trained by Iran and had expertise in air defences.

The attack follows a major escalation last week, when Hezbollah retaliated over the killing of Muhammad Nimah Naser, a senior commander, by launching more than 200 rockets and a number of drones into Israel. The number of missiles fired in one of the biggest attacks to date reached the daily peak of the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Military analysts fear the death toll of a similar war today would far exceed that conflict, in which killed about 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, 44 civilians in Israel and 121 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Israel has repeatedly warned it could launch a ground invasion of Lebanon to stop cross-border rocket and drone attacks. The Israeli military says it has approved and validated plans for such an incursion.

Hezbollah says it will not end its attacks until Israel ends its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, where nearly 38,000 Palestinians have been killed.

The group has shot down four Israeli drones since October 8, when it opened what it calls a “pressure front”, complicating Israel’s war in Gaza by draining its enemy’s resources on two fronts.

Hezbollah has used Iranian-supplied Saqr 358 anti-aircraft missiles to down Israeli Hermes model drones that each cost up to $5 million.

However, the weapon is optimised only to attack relatively low-flying aircraft, such as helicopters and drones.

Israeli analysts have speculated in recent years that Iran has supplied the group with more powerful systems including the Buk and Pantsir, Russian-made systems the group might have acquired from Syria. In theory, those weapons could target Israeli jet fighters, helping to blunt Israel’s considerable air power advantage.

Nearly 400 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 8, around 90 of them civilians, while 18 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed in Israel.