1 more Hezbollah fighter killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Lebanon border

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – The Lebanese group Hezbollah said on Saturday that one of its members has been killed in border clashes with Israeli forces.

In a statement, the group identified the fighter as Ibrahim Hassan Fadel, 21, from the town of Touline in southern Lebanon, who was killed "on the road to Jerusalem," which means he was killed while fighting Israel forces in support of Palestinians who have been subjected to a brutal onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

The new fatalities bring the total number of Hezbollah fighters killed in combat with Israeli forces since last October to 429, according to an Anadolu tally.

Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks and after the July 30 killing of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 40,300 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion. The military campaign has reduced much of the territory to rubble and left most of the people homeless, hungry and prone to disease.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi