Hezbollah says it fired drones and guided missiles at Israel

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Tayr Harfa near the border on April 26, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Saturday it had targeted northern Israel with drones and guided missiles after cross-border Israeli strikes killed three people, including two of its members.

A statement from the group said it “launched a complex attack using explosive drones and guided missiles on the headquarters of the Al Manara military command and a gathering of forces from the 51st Battalion of the Golani Brigade.”

The Israeli army said its Iron Dome air-defense system “successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into the area of Manara in northern Israel.”

The army also “struck the sources of fire” of several anti-tank missiles launched from Lebanon into the Manara border area, it added.

Lebanon’s National News Agency later reported that an Israeli air strike on a house in Srebbine village had wounded 11 people, one seriously.

Earlier Saturday, Israeli fighter jets “struck a Hezbollah military structure in the area of Qouzah in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a statement.

The border between Lebanon and Israel has seen near-daily exchanges of fire since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began nearly seven months ago.

In two separate statements earlier Saturday, Hezbollah mourned the deaths of two fighters from the villages of Kafr Kila and Khiam.

It said they had been “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” the phrase it uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire.

Hezbollah has intensified its targeting of military sites in Israel since tensions soared between Israel and Iran over the bombing of Tehran’s Damascus consulate on April 1, widely blamed on Israel.