UPDATE 2 – Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Israel trade attacks as border tension escalates

UPDATES WITH ARMY STATEMENT, ADDS CHANGES, EDITS THROUGH

By Wassim Saifuldine

BEIRUT (AA) – Hezbollah and Israel exchanged cross-border attacks on Wednesday amid escalating tensions along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

At least 18 people were injured in an explosive drone attack in northern Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.

A military statement said 14 soldiers were among the injured in the attack that targeted a community center in the border town of Arab al-Aramshe.

The army said five soldiers were in critical and serious condition.

Lebanese group Hezbollah said the attack was a response to the killing of three of its members, including two commanders, in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Hezbollah also said in a statement that it targeted an air surveillance unit at the Israeli base of Miron with missiles, causing damage.

Hezbollah fighters also fired rockets and artillery shells at a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the Ramiyah site and the command headquarters of the Israeli army’s 91st Division in the Biranit barracks in northern Israel.

An Israeli military vehicle was also struck at the Metulla site in northern Israel, causing casualties among soldiers, the Lebanese group said.

Israeli warplanes, meanwhile, staged airstrikes in the town of Ayta al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Israeli fighter jets also struck the outskirts of the border towns of Alma al-Shaab and Dahieh with white phosphorus shells, the broadcaster said.

There were no available reports yet of casualties or damage.

The escalation followed the death of three Hezbollah commanders in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Tension has escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv pressed ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 33,900 people since last October following a Hamas attack.

At least 275 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces since then, according to Lebanese media.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul