BEIRUT: The Israeli military and the Lebanese organization reported that two Hezbollah fighters and an Israeli soldier were slain in battles on Monday, marking the most recent instance of cross-border violence.
Iran and Hezbollah pledged to retaliate after an Israeli raid on Beirut last month claimed the life of top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, only hours before an Israeli-attributed attack in Tehran claimed the life of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
A Bedouin Trackers Unit member “fell during combat in northern Israel,” according to the Israeli military.
Following the announcement by Lebanon’s health ministry that two persons had died in an Israeli strike in the border village of Hula, Hezbollah declared that two of its fighters had been “martyred.”
According to the Israeli military, airstrikes were carried out against “Hezbollah military structures” in south Lebanon as well as the Hula area.
Hezbollah had earlier claimed to have carried out a “simultaneous air attack” on two Israeli military locations: a base close to the coastal town of Acre, about 15 kilometers from the border, and the Yaara barracks near the border, using “explosive-laden drones.”
“Multiple suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon,” according to the Israeli military.
In the Yaara area, air defenses “intercepted some of the targets, and others fell,” according to the statement.
According to Hezbollah, there had been an Israeli “attack and assassination” in the Tyre region of south Lebanon.
A number of Israeli soldiers were allegedly “infiltrating” close to the border when Hezbollah’s militants attacked them “with rocket weapons and artillery, forcing them to return.” On Monday, Hezbollah also declared that it had attacked other Israeli locations.
Israeli shelling and assaults on many southern locations were reported by Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA), which also claimed that twice over Beirut and its environs, “enemy warplanes” flying at a low altitude broke the sound barrier.
