Beirut: Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon resulted in the deaths of four individuals, including two Hezbollah members, and injured five others, as reported by Lebanese military sources.
The sources, who spoke anonymously, said on Saturday that an Israeli warplane targeted a house in the village of Houla, killing two Hezbollah members and injuring three civilians, Xinhua news agency reported. The sources added that another Israeli airstrike targeted, with two air-to-surface missiles, a commercial market in the village of Aitaroun, killing two civilians and wounding two others.
The two slain civilians were identified as Ali Khalil Hamad, a coffee shop owner, and a young man named Mustafa Issa. Meanwhile, Hezbollah said it responded to Israel's raids on Saturday with several attacks in the occupied Shebaa Farms and some Israeli sites, including Malikiyah, Al-Samaqa, Zarit, and al-Raheb.
Tensions increased between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in the wake of the latter's announcement of completing deployment for a major offensive against the former. The announcement came after a drone attack by Hezbollah on Wednesday on an Israeli gathering south of the Al-Kosh settlement in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, which caused numerous casualties.
The confrontations between the two sides have escalated along the Lebanon-Israel border since October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.
Source: IANS