Hezbollah says it attacked 9 Israeli military sites with rockets and drones

Hezbollah’s statement said it had also launched attack drones at the headquarters of Israel’s northern command, an intelligence headquarters and a military barracks.

A security source told Reuters that involved firing at least 30 attack drones at once, making it the group’s largest drone attack to date in the eight-month-old war.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah said it carried out at least eight attacks that day in retaliation.

State broadcaster Kan broadcast footage of numerous mid-air interceptions of rockets above Israeli towns, including in Safed, some 12km (7.5 miles) from the border.

Two people were wounded by shrapnel, Israel’s national ambulance service said.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon – more than it lost in 2006, when the sides last fought a major war, according to a Reuters tally. The number of civilians killed is around 80, the tally says. Attacks from Lebanon have killed 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians, Israel says.

The exchanges of fire have also displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.

“Diplomatically or militarily, peace will be returned to our north. Israel will defend itself. There should not be any doubt about this whatsoever. This (situation) cannot be a sustained reality,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces raided a town in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, killing three Palestinians and detaining several others in what the army described as an operation to pre-empt militant attacks.

The West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has seen a surge in violence since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas.

During the raid in Qabatiya, troops surrounded a building where two gunmen were holed up, exchanging fire with them, the army said. The two Palestinians were killed and witnesses saw the body of one them being lifted out by an armoured bulldozer.

A third Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops elsewhere in the town, medical officials said.

There was no immediate claim of the dead men by any armed Palestinian faction. The army described the two killed in the building as “senior terrorists” without elaborating, and added that weapons were seized in the raid.

Several Palestinians were detained by troops, who also “exposed explosives planted into roads which were intended to be used to attack the forces”, the army statement said.

A soldier was wounded during exchanges of fire, it added.