By Wassim Seifeddine and Omar Alothmani
BEIRUT (AA) - Hezbollah said on Wednesday that it targeted Israeli infantry forces attempting to advance into several areas in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the group reported targeting “Israeli enemy forces with rocket and artillery fire as they tried to advance to Meiss El Jabal from several locations,” noting that “the clashes are still ongoing.”
In another statement, Hezbollah mentioned that its fighters targeted an Israeli infantry unit attempting to advance toward the Labbouneh area “with a large rocket barrage, causing casualties.”
The movement said it struck enemy forces during their advance from the Toufa plain toward Meiss El Jabal and Mhaibib with a rocket barrage, adding that it also targeted a group of Israeli soldiers south of Maroun El Ras with rocket fire.
The movement also reported targeting Israeli infantry forces with a rocket barrage while attempting to infiltrate at Ras al-Naqurah toward Mshayerfeh. The group said it also targeted a concentration of Israeli forces in the Kroum al-Marah in Meiss El Jabal with artillery shells.
Hezbollah further said it targeted Israeli forces in the Bsatayn al-Manarah area with a rocket barrage.
Regarding the rockets fired toward Israel, the group stated that its fighters targeted the Zofulon area in northern Israel with a large rocket barrage.
In another statement, it confirmed targeting Israeli forces in Misgav Am with artillery shells and firing rockets at Israeli forces in the Kfar Giladi settlement in northern Israel.
Earlier, Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said a man and a woman in their forties were pronounced dead after sustaining critical injuries from rocket strikes on Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
The Israeli army confirmed that 20 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Kiryat Shmona with air-raid siren sounding in the area.
A military statement said 40 more rockets were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, injuring five people in Haifa and causing power outages in parts of Kiryat Bialik.
The army said some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others landed in the Upper Galilee and Haifa Bay areas.
Videos circulating on social media showed rockets falling in Haifa and nearby regions.
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,301 people, injuring 3,618 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.
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 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
At least 2,119 people have since been killed and 10,019 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio