Hezbollah fired on Monday a volley of rockets at an Israeli military base, the Lebanese group said after Israel’s first strikes on Lebanon’s east in months of hostilities linked to the Gaza war.
Two Hezbollah members were killed in the Israeli strikes in the eastern Baalbek area, two security officials in Lebanon and a source close to the Iran-backed group told AFP.
“In response to the Zionist aggression near the city of Baalbek,” fighters targeted an army base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights “with 60 Katyusha rockets,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
The Israeli army told AFP that “dozens of rockets” had been launched from Lebanon. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The military had said the strikes near Baalbek targeted Hezbollah air defense systems in retaliation for the group downing one of its drones in south Lebanon earlier on Monday.
One of the Lebanese security sources said Israeli strikes hit a building used by Hezbollah in a Baalbek suburb and a warehouse near Baalbek belonging to the group.
Both sources requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Hezbollah later announced two of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire, with a source close to the group confirming they were killed in the Baalbek strikes.
The Israeli army said it struck Hezbollah “aerial defense” sites in the Bekaa valley in response “to the launch of a surface-to-air missile” which downed the Israeli drone.
It was the first Israeli attack on Hezbollah outside Lebanon’s south since war erupted on October 7 between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally.
‘Determination’
Later Monday an Israeli strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed at least one person, local rescuers told AFP, without providing further details.
Hezbollah said a third fighter had been killed by Israeli fire.
Hezbollah announced several attacks on Israeli sites and troops on Monday, with local media also reporting Israeli strikes on south Lebanon villages.
Since October 8, Hezbollah and arch-foe Israel have exchanged near-daily fire, but strikes have been largely contained to the border area — although Israel has on occasion launched attacks elsewhere in Lebanon.
During a funeral procession for one of the group’s fighters, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah lambasted the strikes on Baalbek, a bastion of the Shiite Muslim movement near the border with Syria.
“This Zionist encroachment will not push us to retreat, it will rather increase our determination,” Fadlallah said in a televised address.
The cross-border hostilities have killed at least 281 people on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 44 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and six civilians have been killed since October, according to the Israeli army.
Residents on both sides of the border have been displaced by the fighting, and Israeli officials have threatened military action to restore security in the country’s north.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said there would be no let up in Israeli action against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire was secured in Gaza.
Hezbollah has said it will stop launching attacks on Israel if the Israeli military stops its Gaza offensive.
In January, a strike widely attributed to Israel killed Hamas’ deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri and six militants in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold — the most high-profile Hamas figure to be killed during the war.
