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

UPDATES WITH DETAILS, REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, ADDS CHANGES

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 a missile attack in northern Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.

Three of the injured were in serious condition in the attack that targeted a community center in the northern border town of Arab al-Aramshe.

Hezbollah 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