Hostilities Mount On Lebanon Border As Hezbollah And Israel Swap Strikes

Tensions have escalated as Hezbollah and Israel exchanged strikes on the IsraelLebanon border.

The Iran-aligned Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it had fired a “large volley” at the Meron base in northern Israel. Shortly afterwards, Israeli strikes were reported in several towns across southern Lebanon.

The swap of strikes came after Israeli warplanes carried out a rare attack on targets deep inside Lebanon on Monday. The rise in hostilities revives concerns that the war in Gaza threatens escalation across the region.

Hezbollah said it had targeted the “Meron air control base … with a large salvo of rockets from several launchers”. The Israeli army said about 40 rockets had been launched towards Israel from southern Lebanon.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Lebanese capital, Beirut, said Israeli missiles hit several towns in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said in a statement its warplanes attacked a military compound and infrastructure for Hezbollah in Jibchit, Mansouri and other villages in the area. Tit-for-tat

On Monday, Israel hit Buday village near Baalbek, about 100km (60 miles) from the border in eastern Lebanon. It was the first time the Hezbollah stronghold Bekaa Valley had been hit since hostilities in Gaza began in October.

The Israeli army said the attack, which killed at least two Hezbollah members, had struck the armed group’s air defences after the downing of an Israeli drone.

Hezbollah said earlier in the day that it had shot down the unmanned plane with a surface-to-air missile.

It also claimed to have fired 60 rockets at an army station in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the wake of the Baalbek strikes.