Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Israel trade cross-border attacks

By Wassim Saifuldine

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

Hezbollah said it struck with anti-tank shells gatherings of Israeli soldiers in Shtula settlement in northern Israel and Ruwaysat Al-Alam post in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon.

It also shelled with missiles Kiryat Shmona settlement and a military command center in northern Israel.

Israeli artillery, meanwhile, shelled the outskirts of Ayta ash-Shab town in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

There were no available reports of casualties or damage.

The violence followed an Israeli airstrike that killed seven paramedics with Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

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 nearly 32,500 Palestinians following a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

More than 300 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 Mohammad Sio in Istanbul