As the rate of Iran’s ballistic missile fire has decreased, the Israeli military assessed Thursday that Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel from Lebanon may increase.

So far, the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group has launched dozens of rockets and drones at Israel, mainly at the north of the country, but also a handful of projectiles at the center.

After attacks by the US and Israel on Iran, Hezbollah launched missiles and drones into Israel Monday for the first time in over a year, and Israel retaliated with strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, leading to further Hezbollah attacks.

Two Hezbollah rockets have hit northern Israeli towns so far this week, injuring one person. Israel has vowed to exact heavy consequences from the terror group in response to the attacks and is expanding its presence in southern Lebanon.

Thursday saw some 10 rockets launched from Lebanon at northern Israel by the afternoon, causing sirens to sound in the Galilee Panhandle and Western Galilee. According to the IDF, some of the rockets were intercepted while the others were allowed to hit open areas “according to protocol.” There were no reports of injuries.

A US general said on Wednesday, meanwhile, that Iran’s rate of missile fire against Israel and other countries had dropped 86% since the start of the conflict.

The IDF on Wednesday repeated a warning to all Lebanese civilians in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes amid the fighting against Hezbollah and move north of the Litani River, roughly  30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Israeli border.

Military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee stressed that “anyone who is near Hezbollah operatives, its facilities, or its [weapons] is putting their life at risk. Any house used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting.”

The IDF estimates that over 300,000 Lebanese civilians have so far evacuated their villages in southern Lebanon. During the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024, nearly 1.2 million Lebanese were displaced from their homes, along with some 60,000 Israelis.

The IDF continued its strikes against the terror group overnight Wednesday-Thursday, hitting command centers in Beirut, including one serving Hezbollah’s aerial forces, which is responsible for drone attacks on Israel, according to the army. It also killed a cell of Hezbollah operatives in a drone strike on a command center in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said a strike on a building in the Beddawi Palestinian camp, in the coastal city of Tripoli, killed two people. The IDF didn’t immediately say who it targeted in the strike.

The attacks took place as troops pushed deeper into southern Lebanon in recent days, with the IDF saying it assumed “forward defensive positions to establish an additional defensive layer to remove the threats to the residents of northern Israel.”

חוסלה חוליית מחבלים שפעלה מתוך מפקדה בדרום לבנון כוחות אוגדה 91 זיהו במהלך הלילה מספר מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, נכנסים למבנה ששימש כמפקדה של הארגון, במרחב הפעילות של כוחותינו בדרום לבנון. Advertisement if(typeof rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner != "function" || !rgb_remove_toi_dfp_banner("#336x280_Middle_2")){ window.tude = window.tude || { cmd: [] }; tude.cmd.push(function() { if(navigator.userAgent.indexOf("rgbmedia-app") > -1){ tude.setDeviceType("mobile"); } tude.refreshAdsViaDivMappings([ { divId: '336x280_Middle_2', baseDivId: '336x280_Middle_2', } ]); }); } חיל האוויר תקף וחיסל את המחבלים מיד לאחר הזיהוי. צה"ל ימשיך לפעול על מנת להסיר כל… pic.twitter.com/jb1caBEH8Y — צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 5, 2026

חוסלה חוליית מחבלים שפעלה מתוך מפקדה בדרום לבנון

כוחות אוגדה 91 זיהו במהלך הלילה מספר מחבלים מארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, נכנסים למבנה ששימש כמפקדה של הארגון, במרחב הפעילות של כוחותינו בדרום לבנון.

חיל האוויר תקף וחיסל את המחבלים מיד לאחר הזיהוי.

צה"ל ימשיך לפעול על מנת להסיר כל… pic.twitter.com/jb1caBEH8Y

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 5, 2026

Since Hezbollah joined the conflict on Monday, the military has struck over 320 targets in Lebanon.

The number of people killed in Lebanon since the resurgence in hostilities has risen to 77, with 527 people wounded, the Lebanese health ministry said Thursday.

It is not clear how many of the casualties are civilians. The Lebanese health ministry earlier claimed that seven children were killed.

In a televised address Wednesday night, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said his terror group’s resumption of rocket attacks on Israel this week was a response to Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon and airstrikes in the country since the November 2024 Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal halted a year of conflict between the sides.

The speech came alongside the Lebanese government’s accusation that the Iran-backed proxy was dragging Lebanon into a regional war. The Lebanese government has called on Hezbollah to lay down its weapons and has made efforts to disarm the terror group.

“By God, how strange you are,” Qassem said in the speech, addressing the Lebanese government. “What is your response to the wide-scale aggression?”

The renewed fighting against Israel, he claimed, “is not linked to any other battle; what we want is to stop the aggression.”

At the same time, Qassem said that the renewed rocket attacks on Israel “are a response to 15 months of violations against us, including the targeting of the great religious authority,” ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader who was killed at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign on Saturday.

Israel has regularly been striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since late 2024, citing violations of the ceasefire and attempts by Hezbollah to reestablish its threat against the Jewish state along the border. Hebrew media has widely reported that Hezbollah had been under intense Iranian pressure in recent days to strike Israel due to the Israeli-American campaign in Iran.

“To anyone asking about the timing” of Hezbollah’s resumption of attacks, Qassem said: “Were we expected to remain endlessly patient?”

“What Israel did after the rocket salvo was not a response. It was an aggression that had been prepared in advance,” he continued.

“Hezbollah and its Islamic resistance are responding to the Israeli-American aggression and this is a legitimate right… For us this is an existential defense.”

He added that the Lebanese government’s formal decision in August to bring all weapons in the country — chiefly Hezbollah’s — under state control, “was a grave error that has weakened the position of the Lebanese state and legitimized Israel’s freedom of aggression.”

“As long as there is occupation — resistance and arms are a right,” he said.

Qassem also criticized Beirut’s announcement Monday of an “immediate ban” on Hezbollah’s military activities and fresh demand that it surrender its weapons.

“Instead of the Lebanese government moving to condemn the Israeli-American aggression and look for ways to confront it, it turned against the resistance to complete its error and align itself with Israeli demands.”

“The topic of the resistance and the weapons of the resistance is not a subject of dispute for anyone or with anyone. It is a legitimate right. We are fighting in Lebanon in defense of our people, the future of our children and our country,” he added.

Also Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him not to order a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to a French readout.

The call came a day after Israel deployed troops deeper into southern Lebanon, beyond the five posts it had been holding.

Macron also called Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, stressing “the need for Hezbollah to immediately cease its attacks against Israel and beyond. This strategy of escalation constitutes a major error that endangers the entire region.”

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