Hezbollah and the Israeli army resumed border clashes, hours after an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a member of the Amal Movement. This ended days of smaller clashes that were limited to sporadic attacks by the party and usual Israeli responses.
The pace of military operations has escalated since Wednesday night, following Israeli strikes deep inside Lebanon that led to the killing of an Amal member in the town of Qantara, 7 kilometers away from the nearest border point.
Hezbollah said in successive statements that it had carried out four military operations, three of which targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers, and were concentrated in the eastern sector.
The party announced on Thursday that it had “targeted a military intelligence force in Metula, killing and wounding its members, adding that the Al-Malikiyah site was also hit with artillery shells.
The Israeli army, in turn, said it attacked a party position in the town of Al-Dhahira, but Lebanese media reported that the raid targeted an uninhabited house, which led to its destruction and damage to the electricity network.
Civil defense teams rushed a number of citizens from the town to hospitals in Tyre after they suffered from suffocation.
Israel intensified the aerial bombardment, launching two missile raids targeting the town of Aita al-Shaab, and a third hitting the town of Yaroun. Two other raids destroyed homes in the town of Mays al-Jabal.
At around 10 pm on Wednesday, Israeli warplanes raided Aita al-Shaab and Marwahin, causing severe damage to property and crops, and attacked the outskirts of the town of Yarin.
Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raids “caused air pollution, during and after the bombing, which led to skin rashes, shortness of breath and suffocation.”