BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement Saturday said it had targeted northern Israel with drones and guided missiles after Israeli strikes killed three people including two of its members, across the border.
A Hezbollah statement said it “launched a complex attack using explosive drones and guided missiles on the headquarters of the Al Manara military command and a gathering of forces from the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade”.
The Israeli army said its Iron Dome air-defence system “successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into the area of Manara in northern Israel”.
It further said that it “struck the sources of fire” of several anti-tank missiles launched from Lebanon into the Manara border area of Israel.
According to a Lebanon’s National News Agency report, an Israeli air strike on a house in Srebbine village had injured 11 people, one seriously.
Earlier in the day, the army said in a statement that its fighter jets “struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Qouzah in southern Lebanon.
There have been near-daily exchanges of fire across border between Lebanon and Israel since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began nearly seven months ago.
Hezbollah, in two separate statements issued earlier in the day confirmed that it mourned the deaths of two fighters from the villages of Khiam and Kafr Kila.
The statement said they had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem”, the phrase Hezbollah uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire.
The Lebanon’s Iran-backed movement has intensified its targeting of military sites inside Israel since tensions rose between Israel and Iran over the bombing of Tehran’s consulate in Damascus on April 1, widely blamed on Israel.
