File photo shows a Nour missile being launched

Beirut, September 30 (RHC)-- Hezbollah has carried out a retaliatory attack against the Israeli regime using a “Nour Missile” for the first time, the resistant movement has announced, as the regime presses ahead with its brutal aggression against Lebanon.

In a statement released on Monday, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israel using a “Nour Missile,” which sources familiar with Hezbollah say is a ballistic missile.

The missile hit the village of Kafr Giladi in the northern part of the occupied territories, the statement said, adding that it had fired it in response to “Israeli violations of cities, villages, and civilians.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has carried out fresh retaliatory attacks on several Israeli military targets and settlements over the past few hours.  The resistance group also fired a barrage of rockets at the Israeli-occupied city of Safed in the northern occupied Palestinian territories.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has launched a barrage of missiles at an Israeli air base in retaliation for the fatal attack that hit the Lebanese territories.
Footage of the attack shows plumes of smoke rising and according to the Israeli media, the air raid sirens were sounded across the city.

Similar strikes targeted other areas in the occupied Galilee region and the Golan Heights.  Hezbollah has also said that its fighters have targeted an Israeli military base with FADI-2 heavy rockets.  The movement said the attacks were in response to Israeli bloodshed in Lebanese towns, and villages.  It added that the retaliatory operations were also carried out in support of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and their resistance.  

In a separate development on Monday, Yoav Gallant, Israeli minister of military affairs said the next phase of the war along the southern border of Lebanon is set to begin shortly.

“The next stage in the war against Hezbollah will begin soon,” Gallant said, according to a statement from his office.

In remarks on Monday, Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem stated that Hezbollah fighters are prepared and “we will emerge victorious in case the Israeli enemy decides to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon.”

Sheikh Qassem also said Israeli forces are killing and committing massacres against civilians across Lebanon, and are attacking civilian and health facilities.  The top Hezbollah official underlined that Israel is delusional if it thinks that it can achieve its goals through massacres and Western support.

A Lebanese political analyst last week praised Hezbollah’s operational capabilities, warning that Israeli forces will become "sitting ducks" for the Lebanese resistance group should they attempt a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The remarks by Amal Saad, a lecturer at Cardiff University, were part of a seven-part thread analyzing Israel’s recent military offensive and the potential risks of Tel Aviv expanding the war into Lebanon.

The mayor of the northern Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, earlier highlighted Israel's vulnerability in the face of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force on the northern front.  Stern has repeatedly urged Israeli settlers not to return to the settlements in the north.

Israeli media have repeatedly said the northern settlements have been emptied of settlers, noting that it is doubtful whether the settlers will ever be able to return.

Israeli raids in Lebanon have killed at least 136 people in the last 24 hours. Relatives of the victims say most of them were women and children.  Lebanon’s Health Ministry says six paramedics were killed and four wounded in an Israeli attack on a civil defense center in Sahmar, western Bekaa.

On Sunday, it said 14 paramedics had been killed in Lebanon over a period of two days.