5 Hezbollah fighters killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon

BEIRUT - Five Hezbollah members were killed and three civilians wounded on Sunday evening in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, said that an Israel drone targeted, with three air-to-air missiles, a civilian car in the southeast village of Houla, killing three Hezbollah members while wounding three civilians.

In a separate attack, an Israeli drone targeted the village of Yaroun in the central sector of the border area in southern Lebanon, killing two Hezbollah members who were riding a motorcycle.

The sources said that members of the Civil Defense and the Islamic Health Authority rushed to the targeted areas and transferred the casualties to Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital.

Also on Sunday, Israeli artillery fired about 75 shells, including 20 phosphorus shells, at 11 towns and villages in the central and eastern sectors, igniting several fires, according to the sources.

Hezbollah said its fighters targeted several Israeli sites.

The Lebanese military sources said that they monitored the launching of about 120 surface-to-surface missiles from southern Lebanon at northern Israel Sunday afternoon, some of which were intercepted by Israeli Iron Dome missiles.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 492 people on the Lebanese side, including 314 Hezbollah members and 91 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.