UPDATE 2 - 4 Hezbollah members killed in clashes on Lebanon’s border with Israel

UPDATES DEATH TOLL

By Wassim Saifuldine

BEIRUT (AA) - Lebanese group Hezbollah said Tuesday that four of its members had been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.

The group, however, did not provide any details about the circumstances leading to their death, saying only they were killed on the road to Jerusalem, a phrase used by the movement for its fighters killed by Israel.

Earlier Monday, Hezbollah said that it had targeted the Israeli military’s Northern Command headquarters with drones.

It said the attack was in response to the Israeli assassination of Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri and Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil.

Arouri was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut’s southern neighborhood last week, while al-Tawil was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Monday.

In another development, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported an Israeli drone strike on a car near Ghandouriyeh town in southern Lebanon, leaving several people injured.

The Israeli army, for its part, said it targeted a cell blamed for launching drones from southern Lebanon toward Israeli targets.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

At least 158 Hezbollah members have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces near Lebanon’s border with Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on Oct. 7, according to figures released by the group.

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, which killed at least 23,210 Palestinians.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul