Tel Aviv, Israel:
Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Tuesday it has launched drone strikes on two northern Israeli bases in retaliation for the killing of a fighter that Israel describes as “significant.”
Since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza, cross-border firefights have occurred almost daily between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
But Hezbollah has stepped up its rocket attacks on Israeli positions in recent days, with the latest attack targeting outside the border area the group usually attacks.
Hezbollah launched “a combined airstrike using decoys and explosive drones that targeted” two Israeli bases north of Acre, the group announced in a statement, while Israel said they did not hit their targets.
The Lebanese group added that the attack was “in response” to an Israeli drone strike that killed one of its members in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.
The Israeli military said it had “successfully intercepted two suspected air targets off the northern coast.”
On Tuesday morning, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP that an Israeli drone strike deep in Lebanon killed an engineer working for the group's air defense forces while traveling in a vehicle.
The attack hit the Abu al-Aswad area near the coastal city of Tyre, some 35 kilometers from the border, an AFP journalist reported.
The hunter's vehicle was completely burned out.
Hezbollah said one of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire, adding that he was a resident of the area where the vehicle was hit.
The group also said another fighter was killed by Israel overnight.
Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had killed “two key terrorists in Hezbollah's air unit” on Tuesday morning and night.
The fighter jet killed on Tuesday was “heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel,” it added.
On Sunday evening, Hezbollah shot down an Israeli drone, both sides said.
At least 378 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 70 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)