Beirut, 22 September 2024 (dpa/MIA) – The Hezbollah militia reported launching an attack on an industrial complex and an Israeli military base near the port city of Haifa in northern Israel early on Sunday, while the Israeli army said it launched attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah described its attack as retaliation for Israel's "brutal massacre" last week, in which coordinated blasts involving electronic devices across Lebanon caused death and injury.

The Iran-backed militia also said it had attacked the Israel Defence Forces' (IDF) Ramat David airbase near Haifa in response to "repeated Israeli aggression in various regions in Lebanon."

It did not mention the name of Ibrahim Akil, the senior Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli attack on a Beirut suburb on Friday.

The death toll from Friday's Israeli attack on Beirut's southern suburbs, a hotbed of the Hezbollah movement, rose to 45, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the IDF reported on Sunday that Hezbollah had launched around 115 attacks on civilian targets in northern Israel.

IDF forces were on high alert in the region to ward off the attacks and to "intensify" attacks on Hezbollah, it said. The attacks penetrated further south than previously.

Air raid sirens were also heard to the south-west of Nazareth, which lies inland from Haifa.

Lebanese authorities described the Israeli air attacks as the heaviest since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year. Some 70 targets had been attacked within 20 minutes, they said.