Israel and Hezbollah edged closer towards full scale war on Tuesday, as the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group launched explosive drones at a key Israeli command base, declaring the attack part of its response to recent high-level Israeli assassinations in Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced it had launched “a number of explosive attack drones” at the Israeli northern military command base in Safed, the first time it has targeted the site.

As air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel on Tuesday, Israeli aircraft, drones and artillery struck multiple targets inside southern Lebanon, including a strike on a car during the funeral of a senior commander in the group’s elite Radwan force who had been killed the day before.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati – a Sunni businessman and politician who describes himself as “liberal” and is not part of Hezbollah – said that while his country was open to negotiations, it was being threatened with war.

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