Hezbollah has been trading almost daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack.
Beirut:
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes killed three people on Monday in the south of the country, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters and a rescue group mourning a paramedic.
Since last week, tensions have risen as Iranian- and Tehran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, have vowed revenge for the assassination of Hamas’s political leader in Tehran and Israel’s assassination of the Lebanese group’s military chief in Beirut.
Hezbollah has been negotiating almost daily attacks with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7 triggered the war in Gaza.
The two deaths raised fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in the summer of 2006.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said an “Israeli enemy attack that targeted a motorcycle” in the southern village of Ebba killed one person, injured another and caused a miscarriage due to the “shock” of a pregnant woman who was close to the location.
Earlier, the Health Ministry said an “enemy attack” near the cemetery in the border village of Mais al-Jabal “killed two people.”
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said one of those killed in Mais al-Jabal was a paramedic from the Risala scout association, which is affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.
Hezbollah announced in separate statements the death of two fighters, one of them Mais al-Jabal.
The Israeli military said the air force “operated in the Ebba area… to attack and eliminate” a Hezbollah operative, who it said belonged to the group’s elite Radwan unit.
It also said that “soldiers identified a terrorist cell operating a drone” in the Mais al-Jabal area and that air forces “attacked and eliminated the terrorists.”
The frontline village is less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the border with Israel and has come under heavy shelling since cross-border clashes began, forcing most residents to flee.
Ali Abbas, a rescuer with the Risala Scouts, told AFP that the paramedic traveled on a motorcycle with another person to inspect the site of a previous operation when they were hit.
– Medical supplies arrive –
Hezbollah claimed a series of attacks on Israeli military positions on Monday, one of them with explosive-laden drones that it said was in response to the “assassination” in Mais al-Jabal.
The group had said on Monday that it had targeted other military sites in northern Israel with “explosive-laden drones” in response to previous Israeli “attacks and assassinations” in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said “numerous suspected aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon” into northern Israel overnight, starting a fire and leaving one officer and one soldier “moderately injured.”
The NNA reported Israeli strikes in other areas of southern Lebanon on Monday, while the Health Ministry said three civilians were taken to hospital following Israeli white phosphorus bombing.
Also on Monday, Lebanon received 32 tons of emergency medical supplies from the World Health Organization to “treat war wounds” in efforts to increase readiness for the “escalation of Israeli aggression in Lebanon,” a ministry statement said. of health.
Health Minister Firass Abiad said another shipment of supplies would arrive in the coming days, according to the statement.
Lebanon is ill-prepared for war, with public services, including the health sector, hit hard by an economic crisis that has lasted more than four years and which has also led many medical professionals to emigrate.
Amid rising tensions, Israeli jets broke the sound barrier twice in the skies over Beirut around midday, according to NNA, sparking concern in the Lebanese capital.
Cross-border violence since October has killed at least 550 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians were killed, according to army data.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
This story originally appeared on Ndtv.com read the full story
