1 killed, 2 injured in Israeli strikes in S. Lebanon

BEIRUT -- A Hezbollah member was killed and two civilians injured on Friday in Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeting several border areas in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese military sources.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, said Israel's drones and warplanes carried out eight airstrikes on six border towns and villages, while its artillery bombed 14 other towns and villages with more than 45 shells.

One of the raids targeted a house in the village of Taybeh, killing a Hezbollah member named Ali Hassan Nahla, said the sources, adding that a worker of Bangladeshi nationality was wounded in the Israeli shelling of Al-Wazzani village.

They continued that an Israeli drone fired two air-to-surface missiles at a motorcycle traveling on the road between Al-Wazzani and Rachaya Al-Fakhar in the eastern sector of the border area, seriously injuring its driver, who was then sent to hospital.

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 violent confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army have intensified recently, as the latter announced "its approval of operational plans for an attack on Lebanon."

Meanwhile, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned that no place in Israel "will be safe" from his party's missiles in the event of an outbreak of war.