Escalation in Southern Lebanon: Rockets launched towards northern Israel

Shafaq News / The Israeli newspaper Maariv announced, on Friday, that more than 50 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel. Meanwhile, an official stated that “the United States is bolstering its efforts by transferring additional military assets to the Middle East to enhance regional deterrence efforts and increase protection for US forces.”

This comes as Israel and the US prepare for the possibility of Iran directing an attack on Israeli facilities in response to the targeting of its embassy in Damascus in an Israeli airstrike.

The attack resulted in the killing of Brig-Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a leader in the IRGC’s Quds Force, along with his deputy and five others.

According to official Iranian reports, this strike is not the first of its kind. "The Israeli military, along with its American ally, has previously targeted numerous Iranian targets in Syria and Iraq, assassinating several individuals."

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed, on Tuesday, that the recent airstrikes targeting the Iranian embassy in Damascus "will not pass without a response."

"Having failed to destroy the will of the resistance front, the Zionist regime (Israel) has put blind assassinations back on its agenda to save itself. It must know that it will never achieve its goals and that this cowardly crime will not go unanswered," Raisi said.

In turn, the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to "punish" Israel for targeting the Iranian embassy.

Khamenei stated, "The Zionists will regret their crime after the aggression on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, and our men will punish them."

Notably, Israel has conducted previous attacks against Iran's interests and proxies, even before the outbreak of the October 7 war, citing concerns that Iran and its proxies might utilize Syria as "a base for aggression" against it.