An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon has killed nine people, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has said. This is as the Israeli military reported hitting weapons stores of the Hezbollah movement.
The toll from the strike in the Nabatieh area included “a woman and her two children”.
It also left five other people wounded, two critically, Lebanon’s health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Israel’s military, on its Telegram channel, said its air force had struck a weapons storage facility of the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah overnight.
The facility is “in the area of Nabatieh”, located about 12km (seven miles) from the nearest point of the Israeli border.
Earlier, the military posted on social media that its fighter jets attacked “military buildings” in Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab villages, more than 50km (31 miles) south of Nabatieh city.
The attacks come as Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of its ally Hamas.
Cross-border clashes since October have seen Israeli forces kill about 570 people in Lebanon, most reported to be Hezbollah members.
But also at least 118 civilians, according to a tally of casualties by some news agencies reports.
Israel has attacked Lebanon more than 6,500 times during the same period, according to the news agency.
On the Israeli side, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Tensions have soared after a deadly rocket attack in July killed at least 12 people – many of them children, in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
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Israel blamed the attack on Hezbollah. Its forces then killed Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in a missile attack in the suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah has promised to retaliate as has Iran for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The assassinations by Israel and threats of retaliation have sparked fears of a major regional escalation.
Since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006, the Iran-aligned armed group has increased its military strength, according to analysts.
On Friday, Hezbollah released a video appearing to show its fighters transporting large missiles through tunnels at an underground facility in what appeared to be Lebanon.
Riad Kahwaji, the head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, a security consultancy, said it was “the most explicit video Hezbollah has ever released, showing the size of its tunnels” and weapons arsenal.
Hezbollah likely released the video to “deter” Israel from launching a major operation against it in Lebanon, he said.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that only a Gaza ceasefire deal will stop its attacks on Israeli forces in northern Israel.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “prepared both defensively and offensively” and “determined” to defend itself against both Hezbollah and Iran.
But pressure has been mounting on Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal in Gaza, which would likely avert a wider war involving Lebanon and Tehran. (Al-Jazeera)
