Intense tension looms over the southern Lebanese border with Israel following a long day of mutual shelling and airstrikes. In the latest field developments, reports indicate heavy Israeli artillery fire on the towns of Al-Qlayleh, Al-Shaytiah, and Zabbqin, after rockets launched from Lebanon landed in Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee, with at least one rocket igniting a fire in a residential building. An Israeli tank also targeted a house in the town of Mays Al-Jabal in central southern Lebanon with two shells.
The "Fajr Forces" (the military wing of the Islamic Group) announced in a statement that they launched "new and concentrated rocket barrages aimed at enemy positions in the vicinity of Kiryat Shmona and within it in northern occupied Palestine." They confirmed that "our rocket barrages will continue and increase as long as the Israeli enemy persists in its aggression against our people in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip" and asserted their "capability to expand our response to deter the enemy."
Meanwhile, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced it targeted Nahariya with 16 rockets. Another field development today included "Hezbollah" announcing the downing of an Israeli drone in southeastern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile.
Israeli army artillery had fired incendiary shells earlier today on the forests surrounding the towns of Naqoura and Alama Al-Shaab. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced in a press conference that "we bombed Hezbollah sites on the northern front, and anyone who approaches our borders will be killed." Hezbollah stated that "Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the Misgav Am site appropriately at 10:00 AM on Sunday, October 29, 2023, destroying part of its technical and operational equipment and the Samaka site in the Shebaa Farms with appropriate weaponry, inflicting direct hits."
The group also targeted an Israeli infantry force in the Malakiyeh site and its surroundings, resulting in confirmed injuries. Additionally, Hezbollah launched three rockets towards the city of Safed in the Upper Galilee, marking the first time this area, located 20 km from the Lebanese border, has been targeted. This may be a retaliation for the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah sites in Jabal Safi the previous Saturday.
The Israeli army conducted heavy shelling and used incendiary phosphorus artillery rounds in areas adjacent to the Shebaa Farms, targeting the outskirts of Shanuha, Haltet, Bastra, Kfar Hamam, and Kfar Shuba, resulting in fires in forests and olive groves, though no injuries were reported. Three airstrikes targeted the Arqoub region, while the outskirts of the towns of Al-Dhahira, Yarin, and Al-Bustan came under concentrated artillery fire from Israeli occupation sites at the border.
Simultaneously, helicopters continuously flew over the area, reaching the Bekaa Valley and the Tuffah region. An Israeli drone also targeted an empty house in Aita al-Shaab without any casualties. The enemy's military had bombed the forests adjacent to the blue line to ignite fires, dropping flares in the skies over the western and central sectors amidst reconnaissance flights overhead.
Fires were reported, with the National News Agency indicating that today's Israeli bombardment on Wadi Khansa led to the burning of 20 dunams of olive trees owned by Lebanese Ghazi Ghayad from Shebaa. It also caused a transformer in the town to catch fire, cutting off electricity to Wadi Khansa, and burned an irrigation generator worth about $10,000 used for agricultural irrigation.
