By Abdelraouf Arnaout
JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army claimed on Friday that it carried out strikes against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, the Israeli army said that its forces “identified a cell” that was allegedly “planning to launch rockets towards Israel.”
The Israeli army “eliminated the cell in the area of Tayr Harfa in southern Lebanon,” it added.
The army claimed that following the airstrike, a rocket launch was detected from the same area, suggesting the presence of additional weapons and rockets at the site.
It added that Israeli forces had shelled the Shebaa area in southern Lebanon, but did not provide further details.
There was no immediate comment from the Lebanese Hezbollah group on the Israeli claims.
Fears of a full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah have grown amid an exchange of cross-border attacks, especially after the July 30 assassination of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut.
The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed more than 40,200 people since last October following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara