Beirut: A barrage of Israeli strikes on villages across southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed four people and wounded nearly a dozen, two Lebanese security sources said, as Israel said it had responded to Hezbollah rocket fire that killed a soldier.
A woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of al-Sawana, the sources said. Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters.
An Israeli medical team evacuate a person injured by a rocket fired from Lebanon, at Ziv hospital in Safed, northern Israel.Credit: AP
Eleven people were wounded across the south and the level of damage was “vast”, the sources said.
Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months, after the Lebanese armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which had launched a deadly assault on Israel.
Hezbollah did not announce any operations on Wednesday. The head of its executive council said that Israel’s attacks onto Lebanese territory on Wednesday “cannot pass without a response”.
An Israeli government spokesperson told journalists on Wednesday that rocket barrages from Lebanon on Wednesday morning had left one Israeli woman dead and another eight hospitalised. The military later said the woman who was killed was a soldier.
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Shmona.Credit: AP
“As we have made clear time and time again, Israel is not interested in a war on two fronts. But if provoked, we will respond forcefully,” said spokesperson Ilana Stein.
“The current reality, where tens of thousands of Israelis are displaced and cannot return to their homes, is unbearable. They must be able to return home and live in peace and security.”