Dozens of rockets in several barrages launched at northern Israel over weekend

The ongoing skirmishes between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah continued to intensify over the weekend, with several rocket barrages fired into Israel while the Israeli Air Force allegedly killed two terrorists in one of its deepest strikes inside Lebanon yet.

On Friday, Hezbollah launched a barrage of some 30 rockets at the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and its surroundings, after firing a 30-rocket salvo the day before.

On Saturday, the terror group again fired about 10 rockets toward Israeli communities in the Western Galilee, before striking a residential building in Kiryat Shmona with an anti-tank guided missile, causing some material damage.

Earlier in the day, Arabic media reported that two people were killed and another injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on a car in Jadra, a Lebanese town around 60 km (37 miles) from the Israeli border near the city of Sidon.

The reported target Basel Salah, a senior Hamas terrorist based in Lebanon, is said to have been wounded but survived, while two others were killed.

Hezbollah announced several hours later that one of its terrorists was killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” which is the organization's euphemism for death in combat against Israel. According to Hezbollah, he was the 187th terrorist to die since last October. The other victim’s identity was unknown at the time of publication.

Salah was a senior operative responsible for recruiting and activating terrorists in the West Bank, Israeli media reported.

His immediate commander, Azzam Akra, was killed together with Hamas’ number 2, Saleh al-Arouri, in an alleged Israeli strike in Beirut last month.

The alleged Israeli strike comes two days after another unsuccessful strike targeting two senior Hezbollah terrorists, Ali Karaki and Abbas al-Debes.

“Whether Israel succeeded in killing Ali Karaki and Abbas Al-Debes is almost immaterial and certainly secondary to the attempt on two Hezbollah members as high-ranking as this pair,” commented David Daoud, senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“This was an unmistakable escalation by the Israelis, in the face of which they certainly could not have expected Hezbollah to remain passive. But Israel was trying to send its adversaries a clear message: Israel’s patience with the group’s ongoing attacks is running out, and Hezbollah should consider none of its leadership safe, irrespective of the consequences.”

In response to Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel, the IDF launched several waves of airstrikes at Hezbollah targets in southern Israel over the weekend.

Among the targets attacked by the Israeli Air Force were three Hamas military headquarters in the areas of al-Nakura and Aita al-Sha'ab and two terrorist infrastructures in the areas of al-Khiam and Marfayin.

The IDF also stated that fighter jets attacked a headquarters and another military site in use by the air defense unit of Hezbollah, and destroyed one of the launchers responsible for the rocket salvo on Friday.