Israel-Hezbollah conflict latest: ‘First phase’ declared over as Netanyahu warns Lebanon strikes ‘not the end’

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said that his group would assess the impact of its rocket and drone attack on Israeli military targets earlier in the day before determining whether it would carry out further attacks to avenge a slain commander.

The leader of the Lebanese armed group said in a televised address that it had been able to carry out its attack “as planned,” denying statements by the Israeli military that its pre-emptive strikes had stopped a wider attack by the group.

Nasrallah, speaking about 12 hours after the most intense exchange of fire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel since hostilities broke out in parallel with the war in Gaza, said the group had intentionally refrained from targeting civilians or public infrastructure, including Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

He said the group’s main target was a military intelligence base about 110 km (70 miles) inside Israeli territory – the deepest attack yet and just 1.5 km north of Tel Aviv.

Nasrallah said the group would assess the results of the operation, a retaliation for Israel‘s killing of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukron the edges of Beirut last month.

“If the result is not enough, then we retain the right to respond another time,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah had not planned a larger attack, specifically denying Israeli military statements that the group had intended to fire thousands of projectiles.

But he acknowledged that the operation had been delayed for several reasons, including what he called a “mobilization” of Israeli and American military assets in the region.

One Israel navy soldier was killed and two wounded during combat in northern Israel on Sunday, the Israeli military said.

It gave no details of the circumstances of the soldier’s death but Israeli media reported it occurred on a naval vessel offshore as an interceptor from Israel‘s Iron Dome aerial defence system engaged a drone fired by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has claimed that Hezbollah did not use precision missiles in their strikes this morning but that they could use them in the near future.

In a lengthy speech, he added that Hezbollah had targeted an Israeli military intelligence base just outside of Tel Aviv and had ruled out targeting civilian infrastructure.

Jordan has warned that heightened escalation between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah could lead to a “regional war” that would threaten stability.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Sufain Qudah said that Israel‘s relentless “aggression” in Gaza and the failure to reach a ceasefire was exposing the region to the dangers of an expansion of the conflict, Jordanian state media reported.

Israel and the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah exchanged messages via intermediaries on Sunday in order to prevent further escalation following one of the biggest exchanges of fire between the two foes in 10 months, two diplomats told Reuters.

The main message was that both sides considered that Sunday’s intense exchange of bombardment was “done” and that neither side wanted a full-scale war, one diplomat said. The diplomats spoke on condition they were not identified.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel took pre-emptive action against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and said air defences had intercepted all rockets and drones launched against Israel.

He said that the leaders of Hezbollah and Iran should know that the response was “another step towards changing the situation in the north and returning our residents safely to their homes” and that “this is not the end of the story”.

Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has debriefed his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the exchange of rocket fire with the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.