Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Israel exchange cross-border attacks amid escalation

By Wassim Saifuldine

BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israeli forces traded cross-border attacks on Thursday amid growing tensions between the two sides.

Hezbollah said its fighters struck with missiles the Israeli sites of Rweisat al-Alam and Samaka in Kfarchouba in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, resulting in direct hits.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes on the outskirts of Naqoura in southern Lebanon. Artillery shelling was also reported in the border towns of Tair Harfa and Ain al-Zarqa.

There were no reports yet of casualties or damage.

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.

Hostilities escalated as Israel continued its military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 31,300 civilians since a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

At least 300 people are estimated to have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 242 members of Hezbollah. Around 20 Israelis have also been killed, according to Israeli figures.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul