Funeral of one of the members of Hezbollah killed in south Lebanon by Israeli drone strike . Clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border have steadily escalated lately, even as international diplomats scramble to find a solution to return calm to the region.
At least two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli drone strike on a residential building in south Lebanon on Thursday, a security source said.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
An Israeli drone shot two guided missiles at the building in Kfar Rumman, near south Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh, the security source said, declining to be identified as they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kfar Rumman lies around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the Israeli border.
Hamas ally Hezbollah had claimed a series of attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Thursday, including one which it said was in response to “Israeli attacks on villages and civilian houses.”
The violence on Israel’s northern border has sparked fears of another full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah like that of 2006.
Since October, at least 273 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 42 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed that Israel would pay “with blood,” after 10 civilians, including seven members of one family, were killed in Lebanon’s largest single-day death toll so far. Five Hezbollah fighters were also killed.
On Wednesday, an Israeli strike killed a woman and a girl, prompting retaliatory fire from Hezbollah.
Hezbollah targeted northern Israel with anti-tank missiles on February 22. “An anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon struck a private home in Yuval, a village in the Upper Galilee,” Israel’s Yediot reported. A second anti-tank missile struck an open area near Kiryat Shmona, a city in northern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message to Hezbollah on February 22nd during a visit to troops stationed near the Lebanese border, that it “must understand—we will restore security.”
“In the north, we have a simple goal: To return the residents [to their homes near the border with Lebanon]. In order to that, we must restore security—and this will be achieved. We will not relent here. We will achieve this in one of two ways: Militarily—if necessary; diplomatically—if possible,” Netanyahu said, according to a government statement.
AFP/A Arabiyeh/ Ya Libnan
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