By Wassim Seifeddine and Zein Khalil
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (AA) - Hezbollah announced on Sunday that it had launched three military operations targeting Israeli sites and gatherings in Malkia, Metula, and the Raviv military barracks along the Lebanese border.
In a statement, Hezbollah said that it had targeted the armored battalion headquarters of the 188th Brigade in the Raviv barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets.
The group said the attacks were in retaliation for Israel’s assaults on southern Lebanese villages and civilian homes, specifically an attack on the town of Sarafand in southern Lebanon.
In a separate statement, Hezbollah reported that its forces had destroyed an Israeli technical system at the Malkia site using a drone, scoring a direct hit.
Additionally, Hezbollah said its fighters had targeted Israeli soldiers stationed at the Metula site with another drone, achieving confirmed hits.
On Saturday evening, three children and one other person were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Hermel district in eastern Lebanon. The airstrike was part of a series of nine Israeli air raids that evening, some of which targeted deep areas of Lebanon, while others hit locations in the south.
Separately, the Israeli army reported on Sunday that around 40 rockets were launched from Lebanon towards illegal settlements in northern Israel, with several landing in open areas and causing fires.
In a statement, the army said that "some rockets were intercepted, while the rest landed in open areas, with no casualties reported."
"Firefighters are currently working to extinguish fires caused by the rocket landings in the open areas,” it added.
Israeli Army Radio also reported that approximately 150 rockets have been fired toward northern Israel over the past 48 hours.
Recent months have seen a rise in weapons fire exchanges between the Israeli army and Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. The escalation comes amid Tel Aviv’s threats to launch a ground invasion of Lebanon, despite regional and international warnings that the situation could spiral out of control.
On Saturday, Israeli Channel 13 reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last Thursday that Israel is "preparing for a broad and powerful operation on the northern front."
Tensions have spiked along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with an offensive against Gaza which has killed over 41,000 people since last October following a cross-border attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi