This content was published on December 2, 2023 – July 19:44,
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli forces and militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah group exchanged fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon throughout the day on Saturday, the second day of renewed violence after the collapse of the truce in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel.
Both the army and Hezbollah said it had hit targets for the other side, but despite intense gunfire in many locations, only Iran-backed Hezbollah announced in a statement that one of its fighters had been killed.
The Israeli army said that the air force and artillery bombed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after launching missiles at a number of its positions near the border.
Hezbollah also said it fired rockets toward at least five Israeli positions on Saturday afternoon.
The Israeli army said earlier that two mortar shells fired from Lebanon landed in two open areas in Shomrah, on the opposite side of the border from the town of Marwahin in southern Lebanon. The army has not yet responded to a request for comment on the subsequent missile launches.
The mayor of the border municipality of Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon, Hassan Sheet, told Reuters that several houses were hit by Israeli shells, and heavy gunfire also occurred from the Israeli side of the border.
He added that it was not yet clear whether there had been any casualties because calm did not come until the evening at approximately 6:30 local time (1630 GMT), and that he had not yet entered the area of the damaged homes.
A spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that an Israeli bombing hit a place near the force’s headquarters near the coastal town of Naqoura and around the border town of Rmeish, and then a bombing occurred later in the vicinity of the towns of Labouneh and Yaroun.
The Israeli army said that it carried out a bombing near Naqoura after observing “unusual activity” in the area.
The National News Agency in Lebanon reported that a Lebanese military site in the town of Marjayoun was damaged as a result of the Israeli bombing.
The UNIFIL spokesman said that forces also detected gunfire at approximately 11 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) from the Tayr Harfa area, which is approximately a mile from the border, towards Israel.
Following the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, Hezbollah launched almost daily missile attacks on Israeli positions on the border, while Israel launched air and artillery bombardments on southern Lebanon. But the border was largely calm during the week-long truce in Gaza.
This is the worst wave of fighting since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.
Just over 100 people were killed in Lebanon during the violence, 83 of whom were Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of residents fled on both sides of the border.
(Prepared by Duaa Muhammad, Muhammad Attia, and Muhammad Ali Faraj for the Arab Bulletin – Edited by Mahmoud Salama)
2023-12-02 18:44:04
#Exchanging #fire #Israel #Hezbollah #day #collapse #Gaza #truce
