Cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel resumed just hours after the expiry of a truce.
Beirut:
Hezbollah said two of its members were among three people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon Friday, as its militant resumed attacks against Israel following the end of a Gaza truce.
The Iran-backed militant group identified the members killed as Mohammed Mazraani and Wajih Mshek in separate statements.
A source close to the group said Mazraani was killed in his home along with his mother Nasifa, denying he was engaged in combat at the time of his death.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had earlier identified both mother and son as civilians.
Cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel resumed just hours after the expiry of a truce between Israel and Hamas operatives in Gaza that had largely halted violence at the Lebanon-Israel border.
Hezbollah said its fighters targeted “a group of enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Jal al-Allam position”, an Israeli post across the border from near the Lebanese town of Naqura.
A source close to Hezbollah, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, had previously told AFP that the group considers the Jal al-Allam position a key target due to Israeli surveillance equipment located there.
The militant group also claimed four other attacks.
The Israeli army said it struck “a terrorist cell” and “intercepted two launches” from Lebanon, adding that “artillery struck the sources of the fire”.
– Fears of broader conflict –
Apart from a few limited incidents, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas saw a halt to the cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah seen during the first seven weeks of the war.
A source close to Hezbollah had previously told AFP that the group would adhere to the truce if Israel did.
Hezbollah says its attacks have been in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s assault on southern Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw about 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israel has vowed to eliminate the militant group and unleashed an air and ground campaign that authorities in Hamas-run Gaza say has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians.
Skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel, which fought a devastating war in 2006, have raised fears of a broader regional conflagration.
Since hostilities broke out in October, more than 110 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including more than a dozen civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli authorities.
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