LIVE | Israel- Hamas War Day 29: Israeli jets hit Lebanon as Hezbollah retaliates with rockets

Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes along the border with Lebanon Saturday as the militant Hezbollah group attacked several Israeli army posts, including one that was struck with two large rockets.

The escalation came a day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful group is already engaged in unprecedented fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border. He threatened a further escalation as Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas, Hezbollah's ally, nears the one-month mark.

Hezbollah is prepared for all options, Nasrallah declared, “and we can resort to them at any time”. Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border, saying “suitable rockets and weapons” were used. It added that “direct hits were scored and technical equipment was destroyed”.

The Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV network reported that Hezbollah fired Saturday two Burkan rockets, which carry heavy warheads, at an Israeli post known in Lebanon as Jal al-Allam. A Lebanese security official confirmed the report of Burkan rockets being used for the first time.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Israeli warplanes, tanks and artillery fired toward the source of fire on the Lebanese side of the border and also targeted some Hezbollah arms depots, infrastructure and posts used by the Lebanese militant group.

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday across the besieged enclave, including explosions in the south where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge as its ground operation intensifies in northern Gaza.

Calls for a humanitarian pause increased with the UNRWA, the United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, reporting the average Palestinian in Gaza is surviving on two pieces of bread a day, and only one of three water supply lines from Israel is operational.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, “We are going full steam ahead” unless the hostages held by Hamas are released.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,227, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. The UNRWA says 72 of its staff members have been killed.

Blinken warns Israel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel on Friday (November 3) that it risks destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acts swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

In a blunt call for Israel to pause military operations in the territory to allow for the immediate and increased delivery of assistance, Blinken said the current situation would drive Palestinians toward further radicalism and effectively end prospects for any eventual resumption of peace talks to end the conflict.

“There will be no partners for peace if they're consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and alienated by any perceived indifference to their plight," Blinken said, even as the call for a temporary pause without the release by Hamas of Israeli hostages was swiftly rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Israel would be “going with full steam ahead." The comments to reporters in Tel Aviv, following meetings with Netanyahu and other senior officials, amounted to some of the Biden administration's strongest warnings to Israel since the brutal Oct 7 rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 civilians and soldiers.

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