Rockets fired from southern Lebanon are intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system over the Upper Galilee region in the northern Israeli occupied territories, on July 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Tel Aviv, July 19 (RHC)-- Tens of thousands of Israeli settlers in the northern part of the occupied territories seek refuge in shelters to escape the missiles that the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah rained down on the area.   Israeli media on Thursday said that 60,000 panic-stricken settlers rushed to shelters after Hezbollah struck Meron, Nahariya and other settlements in the occupied territories.

A total of 80 rockets were fired by Hezbollah in retaliation for recent Israeli air raids on southern Lebanon in which three Syrian children lost their lives.  Warning sirens were activated overnight in Nahariya and communities across the Western Galilee, located in the northern Israeli occupied territories and southern Lebanon, following earlier barrages of rocket fire by Hezbollah, according to media.

Hezbollah in a statement on Wednesday said that the group had fired a barrage of rockets targeting Israeli settlements in retaliation for the recent air raids on southern Lebanon, with a total of seven settlements being bombarded.  “The fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted the settlements of Sa’ar and Gesher HaZiv with dozens of Katyusha rockets, as part of the response to the Israeli enemy’s attacks on the steadfast southern villages, safe homes, and targeting of civilians, especially the horrific massacre in the town of Umm al-Tout, resulting in three child martyrs,” the statement said.

Moreover, Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in his remarks on Wednesday warned the Israeli regime, “Our front in Lebanon will remain active as long as the aggression against Gaza, its people, and its resistance continues in all its forms.”

Hezbollah’s leader cautioned that potential continuation of the regime’s aggression against Gaza would prompt the Lebanese resistance to start targeting “new Israeli settlements that were previously untouched."  He added that the Israeli regime was “suffering across multiple fronts: Its army, security service ... political parties, immigration, self-confidence, the people’s confidence in staying, and the world’s view of it.”  “This is the result of relentless fighting and steadfastness,” Nasrallah said.

Both sides have been trading near-daily fire along the Lebanese southern border ever since Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip last October.  Hezbollah officials have repeatedly said they do not want a war with Israel, while stressing that they are prepared in case it occurs.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up retaliatory attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians as long as Israel continues the barbarous campaign in Gaza, which has so far killed over 38,794 Palestinians, mostly women and children.