Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanges cross-border fire with Israel amid escalation

By Wassim Saifuldine

BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanese group Hezbollah traded cross-border attacks with Israeli forces on Thursday as tensions continued to grow between the two sides.

Hezbollah said its fighters shelled with missiles and anti-tank shells the Goren and Shlomi settlements and a military command center in northern Israel.

Israeli artillery shelling, meanwhile, targeted several border towns in southern Lebanon, according to the state-run National News Agency.

There were no reports yet of casualties.

The escalation came after at least nine people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, pushing up the death toll to 16 in Lebanon in the last 24 hours.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of weapons fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The border escalation comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 32,500 Palestinians following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

More than 320 people are estimated to have been killed in Lebanon, including at least 246 Hezbollah fighters, since the clashes erupted last October. Nearly 20 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli figures.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala​​​​​​​