2 killed in fresh Israeli strike near Baalbek after Hezbollah shells Golan
Lebanon's National News Agency said fresh Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon on Tuesday killed two people, after Hezbollah said it fired more than 50 rockets at the Golan Heights in response to an Israeli airstrike earlier in the day near the eastern city of Hermel.
The Israeli army said in two separate statements that it had struck Hezbollah targets "deep inside Lebanese territory."
Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Hezbollah following the outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas after the Gaza-based militants' October 7 attack on Israel.
Hezbollah says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas, while Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including with strikes deep into Lebanon.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported that "an Israeli strike" targeted near Iaat, close to the eastern city of Baalbek, killing two people and wounding another.
In recent days, Israeli strikes have targeted the Bekaa valley, a Hezbollah bastion deep inside Lebanese territory, where Baalbek and Iaat are located.
An AFP correspondent saw a building belonging to Hezbollah in flames and two people being taken away on stretchers, with a number of ambulances rushing to the scene.
Hours earlier, the NNA said "an Israeli strike targeted the Wadi Faara region" near the northeastern city of Hermel, reporting the sound of explosions.
An AFP correspondent said the army and Hezbollah had blocked access to the area, some 130 kilometers from the Israeli frontier -- the deepest raid into Lebanese territory in more than five months of hostilities.
A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said those strikes targeted an uninhabited area where Hezbollah has positions.
- Fighter jets -
The Israeli military said its "fighter jets struck a landing area and several military structures inside a military compound used by Hezbollah's aerial unit" at two separate sites which it said were both "deep inside Lebanese territory."
Hezbollah has announced attacks on Israeli targets using drones in recent months.
One of the Israeli raids came in response to an attack on the Israeli army's "aerial control unit" in northern Israel earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said.
It also said it struck Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon near the border.
Hezbollah in separate statements claimed a string of attacks on Israeli targets Tuesday, including one with guided missiles it said targeted the Meron air control base in northern Israel.
It also said it fired "more than 50 Katyusha rockets" towards a barracks in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Since the cross-border hostilities began, at least 330 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including at least 57 civilians, according to an AFP count.
At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
The hostilities have raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in 2006.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/304217 |