Hezbollah, Israel exchange fire as violence spikes at Lebanese border

Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group, said it had simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening. The strikes came hours after the group said it had used two drones packed with explosives to attack an Israeli army command position in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanese-Israeli border earlier in the day, UK’s […]

Hezbollah, a Lebanese armed group, said it had simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel on Thursday evening. The strikes came hours after the group said it had used two drones packed with explosives to attack an Israeli army command position in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanese-Israeli border earlier in the day, UK’s The Guardian reports. 

Reuters reported that the Israeli army said it responded to launches from Lebanon toward Israel with air strikes on Hezbollah targets, along with tank and artillery fire.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Palestinian fighters group Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7, in the deadliest escalation at the frontier since a 2006 war.

Lebanon’s National News Agency on Thursday said two people were killed and a third critically wounded near the southern village of Hula during Israeli shelling.

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Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is due on Friday to deliver his first speech since the war began.

The heavily armed group said in a statement its fighters launched 19 simultaneous strikes on Israeli army positions in Israel using guided missiles, artillery and other weapons.

Israeli shelling struck the outskirts of Khiyam town some 6 km (3.75 miles) from the border, slightly injuring one civilian, the town’s mayor, Ali Rashed, told Reuters. “His house caught fire and people are putting it out,” he said by phone.

“The intensity of the shelling was higher than in previous days. The shelling and the counter shelling were more than any previous level and included the whole area,” he said.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli shells hit various areas of the south along the border.

Israel has held the Shebaa Farms, a 15-square-mile (39-square-km) area of land, since the 1967 Middle East war. Both Syria and Lebanon claim the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese.

 

Casualties surge in Palestine

At least 9,061 people have been killed by Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, including 3,760 children, the health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday. The current conflict began on 7 October when Hamas launched an onslaught on southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people and swept up hundreds more as hostages. 

However, it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify figures from either Israeli or Palestinian authorities. 

At least 195 Palestinians were killed in two rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Hamas-run government media office said. 

The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. 

Israel’s top military commander has said his country’s forces have surrounded Gaza City on three sides and that Israeli troops are operating inside the city.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also said Israeli forces had pushed further in than the outskirts of Gaza City. “We’re at the height of the battle,” he said.