Israel says it has struck Hezbollah targets in response to rocket attacks

Israel’s military said on Friday that about 25 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, damaging a building and setting fires as tensions between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah threaten to spiral into a full-blown war.

Israeli artillery bombarded the sources of the rocket fire, and the military said Israeli warplanes also struck what it described as Hezbollah infrastructure in the area of Jabal Safi, north of the city of Nabatieh.

Israel’s air defence system also failed to intercept three drones from Lebanon that flew into Israeli airspace, the military said. Firefighters were dispatched in the north to try to extinguish the blazes.

The cross-border fire came as Israel’s defence minister told troops on the northern border that he still sought a diplomatic agreement to calm tensions along the border but that the military was prepared to fight.

“We are not looking for war but we are ready for it,” Yoav Gallant said. He said that if Hezbollah “chooses to go to war, we will know what to do”.

Also on Friday, Jordan’s foreign ministry told its citizens to avoid travelling to Lebanon. The US has brought an assault ship, the USS Wasp, into the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week to try to keep fighting between Israel and Hezbollah from escalating.

Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire since the war against Hamas in Gaza began in early October.

The fighting has been gradually intensifying in recent weeks. Hezbollah says its attacks aim to pressure Israel to halt the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will not agree to a ceasefire on the Israel-Lebanon border before there is one in Gaza.

The Israeli army said last week that it has “approved and validated” plans for an offensive in Lebanon, although any decision would come from the country’s political leaders.

Elsewhere, the Council of the European Union on Friday announced new war-related sanctions against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, targeting three companies and six people who allegedly help finance or enable the militant groups.

The penalties are the council’s latest response to the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.

The sanctions would freeze the targets’ assets and prohibit giving them funds or economic resources, either directly or indirectly. It also bans them from travelling to the EU.

The sanctions targeted three firms who the council said are owned and controlled by a Sudan-based businessman, Abdelbasit Hamza Elhassan Mohamed Khair, and which are used to “facilitate Hamas financial streams”.

The council said he has been subject to EU restrictive measures since January.

The council said the individual people listed for sanctions include four men involved with providing financial support or facilitating the transfer of funds for either Hamas or PIJ, as well as a senior official in Lebanon for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and a member of Hamas’s political wing who helps with attacks in the West Bank.

The Council of the European Union, formed of ministers from all 27 member countries, said that it has so far sanctioned 12 people and three entities under a framework of restrictive measures it adopted in January to go after Hamas and PIJ.