BEIRUT, Lebanon
Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Sunday said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before left five dead in southern Lebanon, including three of the group’s members.
Hamas ally Hezbollah and its
arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since
the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
Hezbollah said it had launched
“dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of
Meron, eight kilometers (five miles) from the border.
Meron is home to a major air
control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the
start of the year.
Hezbollah said it had acted
“in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of
civilians,” particularly the targeting of the home of a fighter in Kherbet Selm
the day before.
A woman and another person
were also killed in the same strike, according to Lebanon’s official National
News Agency.
“Following the sirens that
sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon toward
Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted,” the
Israeli army said on Sunday.
The statement added that the
Israeli air force struck Hezbollah infrastructure during the night, including a
“military structure in which Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area
of Khirbet Selm.”
At least 312 people have been
killed in Lebanon since the start of cross-border violence on October 8, most
of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 53 civilians, according to an AFP
tally.
On the Israeli side, 10
soldiers and seven civilians have been killed, according to the latest official
figures.
Tens of thousands of people
have been displaced by the fighting on both sides of the border.
Strikes have largely remained
confined to border regions for the moment, but several have hit Hezbollah
positions further north in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown
conflict.
The group has repeatedly said
that it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.
But Israeli Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant said recently that any truce in Gaza would not change Israel’s
goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.
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