Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon today killed three people, including two Hezbollah fighters, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry and the pro-Iranian Shiite movement.
‘The Israeli enemy attack on the town of Marjayoun left two dead and four wounded in critical condition,’ the Lebanese health authority said in a statement.
The same source had earlier reported another death in an Israeli attack on the border town of Blida.
The Israeli army said that its forces had attacked ‘Hezbollah military structures’, particularly in the Blida region, and ‘eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists in the Marjayoun region’.
The Lebanese news agency ANI reported a drone attack on a car in the central square of Marjayoun, a Christian-majority town that until now had not been the target of any Israeli action, like other towns in southern Lebanon that are also not predominantly Shiite and are therefore not considered Hezbollah strongholds.
The Shiite movement, which confirmed the death of two fighters, retaliated to the Israeli attacks tonight by launching rockets and drones against northern Israel.
The Israeli army reported no injuries, emphasizing that the projectiles launched by Hezbollah fell in an ‘open area’.
Tension on the border between the two countries, initiated by Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which is at war with Israel in Gaza, has recently increased following the assassination by Israel at the end of July of the Lebanese group's military leader in Beirut, and of the Hamas leader in Tehran, in an attack attributed to Israel.
Iran and Hezbollah have already threatened Israel with reprisals.
Ten months of violence have left at least 571 people dead in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On Israel's side, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli authorities.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group on Israeli soil on 7 October 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and more than two hundred hostages, according to the Israeli authorities.
Following the Hamas attack, Israel unleashed a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already caused nearly 40,000 casualties, mostly women and children, around 92,000 injuries and a humanitarian disaster, destabilising the entire Middle East region.
