Hezbollah attacks Israel after deadly south Lebanon strike

A member of the Lebanese intelligence service stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the Adloun plain area, between Lebanon’s southern cities of Sidon and Tyre, on April 23, 2024. A source close to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah on April 23 said that an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon killed an engineer of the Iran-backed militant group as he was traveling in a vehicle. Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT — Official media in Lebanon said an Israeli strike Sunday on a southern village killed four family members, with Hezbollah announcing retaliatory attacks, in the latest cross-border violence since the Gaza war erupted.

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have exchanged regular cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

Fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with Hamas ally Hezbollah stepping up its attacks on northern Israel, and the Israeli military striking deeper into Lebanese territory.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Sunday’s strike in Mais al-Jabal killed “four people from a single family”, reporting that the raid was carried out by Israeli aircraft.

READ: Hezbollah says it fired drones and guided missiles at Israel

It identified the dead as a man, a woman and their children aged 12 and 21, and said two other people were wounded.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed the strike killed “four civilians”.

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF in Lebanon said on social media that “tragically, a family of four lost their lives in an airstrike” in the country’s south.

“We urgently call for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of children and civilians. This violence must end now,” it said.

Retaliatory fire

The Israeli military said in a statement that “this morning… fighter jets struck a military site in the area of Mais al-Jabal”, without providing further details.

Hezbollah in a statement said it fired “dozens of Katyusha and Falaq rockets” at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel “in response to the horrific crime that the Israeli enemy committed in Mais al-Jabal”.

READ: Israel warns ‘another war’ as Hezbollah strikes sensitive base

It later said it fired dozens more Katyushas across the border “as part of the response” to the Mais al-Jabal strike, and claimed a string of other attacks on northern Israel, some in stated retaliation to the raid.

The Israeli army said “approximately 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanon… a number of which were intercepted.”

“No injuries were reported,” it said, adding the army “struck the sources of the fire”.

It also said “fighter jets struck Hezbollah military structures and terrorist infrastructure” in several areas of southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s NNA reported Israeli strikes on various locations in the country’s south.

Hezbollah has repeatedly declared that only a ceasefire in Gaza will end its attacks on Israel, which it says are in support of Gazans and Hamas.

Both the United States and France have made diplomatic efforts to calm tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

In Lebanon, at least 390 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.