Israeli fighter jets pounded Hezbollah hideouts in southern Lebanon with air strikes on Sunday after an incoming anti-tank missile wounded Israeli civilians near the border, the army said.
The Israeli army said “a number of civilians were wounded” in the anti-tank missile strike near the village of Dovev, just half a mile (800 meters) from the frontier with Lebanon.
In response, “fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah terror targets,” including “military infrastructure used by Hezbollah to direct its terrorist activity,” the army said.
The Israel Electric Corporation said that the missile from Lebanon had “hit employees” who were in Dovev to repair power lines downed by earlier strikes.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility and said it had fired on an Israeli team installing “eavesdropping and spying devices” near the border.
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks which launched Israel’s war in Gaza, Israel has also traded fire with militant groups in southern Lebanon on a near-daily basis.
In addition to Hezbollah, Hamas’s Lebanese branch has launched attacks into southern Israel in recent weeks.
The Israeli army also said it had struck “a terrorist cell embedded in a civilian area in Lebanon that intended to open fire toward Israeli territory.”
Overnight, a drone also hit another group in Lebanon that the army said was attempting to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israel.
Israel has evacuated tens of thousands of residents from communities in the north since the October 7 attacks, which officials say killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In response to the worst attacks in Israel’s history, it has launched an offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, killing more than 11,000 there, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Cross-border militant attacks from Lebanon have killed at least six Israeli soldiers and two civilians, according to the army and paramedics.
Israeli leaders have warned Hezbollah against launching a full-scale attack on Israel, saying it could suffer a similar fate to besieged Gaza if it enters the war.
Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
