Israeli defense minister acknowledges 'extensive damage' inflicted by Hezbollah

JERUSALEM

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday acknowledged the "extensive damage" inflicted on settlements and towns in northern Israel due to the ongoing cross-border skirmishes with Hezbollah since Oct. 8, local media reported.

“I understand the amount of damage (in Israel), but on the other side, the damage and the number of terrorists who were killed are of completely different orders of magnitude,” Gallant said during an assessment in northern Israel, as reported by The Times of Israel.

He stressed that Tel Aviv “has to prepare and take into account that anything can happen.” He added: “As I told the troops before we entered Gaza, and they didn’t believe me, I also tell you: Wait, we will act.”

Earlier on Friday, the Israeli army reported that approximately 75 rockets were launched from Lebanon, claiming that it intercepted dozens of them.

In a related incident, Magen David Adom, the Israeli emergency medical service, reported that two Israelis were injured due to the barrage of rockets from Lebanon targeting the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed that it had targeted the Tsnobar base in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with 50 Katyusha rockets and artillery positions in Al-Zaura, northern Israel.

Furthermore, on Friday morning, an Israeli airstrike on the town of Najjarieh in the Sidon district resulted in the death of two children and a Hezbollah member.

Tensions have risen along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as Tel Aviv presses ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 35,300 people since last October following a Hamas attack.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul