BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel on Saturday in retaliation for an Israeli air strike that reportedly killed two civilians in southern Lebanon.
This escalation marks another severe incident in the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which have been intensifying since early October.
The Israeli military stated that its raid targeted two operatives from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shiite Muslim movement. Following this strike, Hezbollah retaliated by firing dozens of rockets at Kiryat Shmona, a border town in northern Israel. The Israeli military reported that four soldiers were wounded, one severely, despite most of the approximately 15 rockets being intercepted by air defences.
In response, Israeli aircraft struck a Hezbollah field commander in the area of Kfar Tebnit in southern Lebanon. Multiple individuals were reported wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle near Kfar Tebnit, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
Hezbollah had launched several attacks on Israeli military positions along the border earlier on Saturday. According to a Lebanese security source, two civilians were killed by an Israeli air strike while filling water from a roadside spring in Deir Mimas. The source noted that one of the victims was a member of Hezbollah and the father of a fighter who had been killed, while the other was a member of the Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah. Both men were described as civilians, not fighters.
The Israeli army contended that the air strike targeted Hezbollah preparing to launch projectiles towards Israeli territory. The military asserted that the operatives were identified and struck by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) shortly thereafter.
Hezbollah stated that their rocket attacks were a response to Israeli aggressions against southern Lebanese villages and civilians. The group has been involved in almost daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces in support of their ally Hamas since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the current conflict in Gaza.
The NNA also reported that an Israeli drone killed two men near the spring, one of whom was a local council member for the Amal movement. The men were collecting water for livestock in Kfar Kila. The Amal movement confirmed that one of its members was killed.
Since the escalation in October, cross-border violence has claimed over 500 lives in Lebanon, including more than 90 civilians, according to an news agency tally. On the Israeli side, at least 29 people have been killed, the majority of whom were soldiers.
The persistent violence, largely confined to the border area, raises fears of a full-scale conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, reminiscent of their last war in the summer of 2006.
