The Israeli army announced on Wednesday that warplanes launched “a series of raids on neighboring Lebanon”, raising fears of an escalation between the two border countries after months of daily exchanges of fire in the context of the war in Gaza.
Since the day after the bloody Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah has targeted Israeli military positions on the border in support of the Palestinian Islamist movement, its ally.
Israel, for its part, regularly bombs southern Lebanon and carries out targeted attacks against Hezbollah officials.
The raids targeted several localities within a radius of ten to 25 km from the Israeli-Lebanese border, and caused significant damage according to images circulating on social networks. A woman, her son and her stepson were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of Sawaneh, a Lebanese security source told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A fourth civilian died in a raid on the village of Adchit, according to the same source which also reported nine injured.
A rocket fired from Lebanon
These raids come after a rocket fired from Lebanon injured several people in northern Israel on Wednesday, according to Israeli medical sources. According to the Magen David Adom emergency services, seven people were injured, including five in the town of Safed.
An AFP photographer saw doctors and soldiers evacuating an injured person from Safed hospital by military helicopter to another facility. This rocket attack has not been claimed at this stage by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah.
Violence between the Israeli army and Hezbollah has caused the displacement of tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday that “when the aggression in Gaza stops and there is a ceasefire, the shooting will also stop in the south” of Lebanon.
“If they widen the confrontation, we will too,” said Hassan Nasrallah, in response to repeated threats from Israeli officials to start a war against Lebanon.
In more than four months, at least 243 people, including 175 Hezbollah fighters and 30 civilians, have been killed in southern Lebanon, according to an AFP count. On the Israeli side, 15 people were killed, including nine soldiers and six civilians, according to the army.