Hezbollah fires 200 rockets Thursday at northern Israel, one IDF soldier dead

July 4 (UPI) -- Tensions between Israel and Iran's proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon have risen in recent days as airstrikes increase amid the fallout from the recent killing of a top Hezbollah leader.

Hezbollah fired a "massive barrage" of at least 200 projectiles toward northern Israel early Thursday morning, Israel Defense Forces confirmed by 7:30 a.m. local time. It also saw more than 20 "suspicious aerial targets," several of which were intercepted, launched at Israel.

The slain IDF soldier, hit by a rocket in Golan Heights, was identified as Maj. Res. Itay Galea, 38.

Fires erupted in several areas and there were original reports of several injuries on the Israeli side, according to The Jerusalem Post .

Sirens in a handful of northern Israeli towns were heard in the morning hours as the Lebanese-based terror group fired at cites like Acre and Nahariya, which have typically not been targets, in what has been described as one of the most intensive attacks by Hezbollah on neighboring Israel since the October war with Hamas began.

In response, the IDF says it carried out a series of airstrikes at supposed Hezbollah launch posts at Ramyeh, Houla, Shihine and southern Lebanon's Jabal Blat area.

According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah launched toward the Golan area, some of which were intercepted by IDF's Aerial Defense Array and Israeli Air Force responders.

This arrives as the Gaza -run Health Ministry claims of now more than 38,000 dead since Hamas attacked Israel and 87,445 injured.

The Israeli military and Hezbollah have been engaged in daily fighting, mostly restricted to parts of southern Lebanon and northern Israel, since the Lebanese militant group joined the battle a day after Hamas' Oct. 7 sneak attack on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip in southern Israel.

But Israel was bracing for the strikes, a direct response to Wednesday's killing of Muhammad Nimah Nasser, a second most senior Hezbollah commander who was killed in IDF military strikes in the coastal city of Tyre, The Times of Israel reported.

Hezbollah then responded in kind by firing at least 100 rockets to Israel's north by Wednesday afternoon local time.

The United States recently deployed an amphibious assault ship to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, intended to act as a military deterrent, in a show of force as tensions mount along the Lebanese border.

However, Iran's proxy militia is not willing to go into a full-scale war with Israel, preferring to maintain the status quo of a "gray-zone warfare," analysts told UP I in January.

A Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, Hezbollah has "an extensive security apparatus," political organization and social services network which has fostered its reputation as a 'state within a state,'" the Council on Foreign Relations explains.

Founded in the chaos of the 15-year-long Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-backed Hezbollah, similar to Hamas, is "driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in the Middle East."

Another top Hezbollah official has signaled how attacks are likely to keep intensifying.

Last week, Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's recent airstrikes from southern Lebanon toward Kibbutz Misgav Am along the Israeli-Lebanese border. No injuries were reported at the time.

"The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit," Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah leader said in Beirut commemorating Nasser.