Israeli bombings kill a woman and her son in Houla while Hezbollah says one of its fighters is also killed.
Israeli bombings killed three people in southern Lebanon, the official Lebanese news agency reports, after the end of the truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas caused a resumption of hostilities on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah, backed by Iran and an ally of Hamas, said one of its fighters was among those killed on Friday.
He said he carried out several attacks on Israeli military positions on the border in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where a week-long pause in fighting ended early in the day.
The Israeli military said its artillery hit sources of fire coming from Lebanon and its air defenses intercepted two launches. The army also said it had struck a “terrorist cell”. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sounded in several towns in northern Israel, prompting residents to run for shelter.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported that two people were killed by Israeli shelling in the Lebanese border town of Houla and one person was killed in the village of Jebbayn.
A woman and her 35-year-old son were killed in Houla, Shakeeb Koteich, chairman of the city council, told the Reuters news agency, saying both were civilians. Hezbollah later said one of its members had been killed in Houla.
“One shell fell near the house, then a second one hit the house,” Koteich said by telephone.
Since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war on October 7, Hezbollah has launched near-daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions on the border while Israel has carried out air and artillery strikes in southern Lebanon.
It is the worst fighting since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, part of an Iranian-backed alliance that also includes Hamas. In Lebanon, around 100 people were killed during the hostilities, including 80 Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of people have fled across both sides of the border.
On November 5, an Israeli airstrike killed four civilians – three children and their grandmother. Three Lebanese journalists were also killed in Israeli attacks.
Hezbollah issued statements claiming five attacks on Israeli military positions on the border, saying they were “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people…and their valiant and honorable resistance.”
A spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon told Reuters that bombings took place near its headquarters near the coastal town of Naqoura and in Aita al-Shaab, also in the south. from Lebanon, late in the afternoon.
“Hezbollah has linked what is happening on the border with what is happening in Gaza,” said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper Annahar.
“As long as the war in Gaza continues, Lebanon will remain threatened by the danger of a major escalation. »
Hassan Fadlallah, a senior Hezbollah official, said earlier that the group was vigilant and ready after the end of the Hamas-Israel truce.
“In Lebanon, we are keen to meet this challenge, being vigilant and always ready to face any possibility and danger that may arise in our country,” he said.
“No one thinks that Lebanon has been spared from these Zionist attacks or that what is happening in Gaza cannot affect the situation in Lebanon,” he said.