Israel claims to have killed 15 Hezbollah members in airstrike in southern Lebanon

By Anadolu staff

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army claimed Thursday to have killed 15 Hezbollah members in an airstrike on a municipal building in southern Lebanon.

A military statement said the attack targeted the Bint Jbeil Municipality late Wednesday, alleging that weapons were stored in the building.

The army said its warplanes hit some 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

There was no comment from Hezbollah on the Israeli claim.

The Israeli army launched a fresh wave of airstrikes in Beirut and several towns in southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah group, for its part, said it targeted with rockets deployments of Israeli soldiers in Sa’sa and Shumera settlements in northern Israel.

Israel has launched massive airstrikes since Sept. 23 on what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon that have killed so far more than 1,100 victims, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 41,800 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 1,928 people have since been killed, over 9,200 injured, and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar