HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS, ISRAELI STRIKES
Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israeli air defences intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village in the Shouf district, southeast of Beirut, a region so far largely spared by Israel’s intensified bombing campaign.
Lebanon’s state civil defence body later said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.
Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since Sep 23, forcing more than a million people to flee, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on Sep 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes in border areas.
Israel’s military said on Wednesday that its troops had “eliminated terrorists during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes” over the previous 24 hours, adding that “100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed”.
Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.
According to a new toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.
Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack early on Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama, after an Israeli strike hit the country’s south the previous day.
Israel’s air force said Wednesday it had killed a Hezbollah member named Adham Jahout in Syria.
