UPDATE – Hezbollah strikes Israeli forces near border with southern Lebanon

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Wassim Seif El Din

BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanese group Hezbollah said Tuesday that it had struck Israeli soldiers near the border with southern Lebanon.

The group said its fighters targeted Israeli forces at the Birkat Risha outpost with missiles, resulting in direct hits. It also attacked with artillery shelling an Israeli military force near the town of Ayta ash Shab.

Hezbollah fighters also struck a Merkava tank with a guided missile at the settlement of Natua in northern Israel, causing casualties among its crew, the Lebanese group said.

The Lebanese group said that it had struck the Kiryat Shmona settlement with “appropriate weapons” in response to Israeli shelling of civilian homes in southern Lebanon.

Separately, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported fresh Israeli airstrikes on several towns in southern Lebanon.

There were no reports yet of casualties or damage.

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

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 300 people are estimated to have been killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the clashes first erupted last October. Nearly 20 Israelis have also been killed, according to Israeli figures.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar