“Approximately 100 IAF fighter jets … struck and destroyed thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels that were located and embedded in southern Lebanon,” the military said in a statement.

“Most of these launchers were aimed towards northern Israel and some were aimed towards central Israel.”

Hezbollah in turn “fired hundreds of rockets and UAVs towards northern Israel”, most of them after Israel launched its attack, Israeli military spokesman lieutenant-colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters.

The fire from Hezbollah was “part of a larger attack that was planned and we were able to thwart a big part of it this morning”, Shoshani said, while declining to specify what Hezbollah had targeted.

“We’re still in a situation assessment of the aftermath of the attack … there is still some fire happening,” Shoshani said.

“But I can tell you there was a little damage … very little damage.”

Shoshani said Israel’s partners including the US did not take part in today’s attack on Hezbollah.

“This morning was an Israeli operation,” he said.