Hezbollah retaliates after Israel kills 5 in Lebanon

LEBANON’S Hezbollah retaliated yesterday by firing dozens of rockets into northern Israel, a day after Israeli strikes killed five in southern Lebanon.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since Israel launched its war on Gaza on Oct. 7. Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of katyusha-type rockets” in the morning on the Israeli village of Meron, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border.

Meron is home to a major air control base that the Iran-backed group has targeted several times since the start of the year.

Hezbollah said it had acted “in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians,” particularly the targeting of the home of a member in Kherbet Selm the day before. A woman and another person were also killed in the same strike, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

“Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel, approximately 35 launches from Lebanon toward Israeli territory were identified, a number of which were intercepted,” the Israeli army said yesterday.

The statement added that the Israeli air force struck Hezbollah infrastructure during the night, including a “military structure in which Hezbollah ... were identified in the area of Khirbet Selm.” At least 312 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of cross-border violence on Oct. 8, most of them Hezbollah members but also including 53 civilians, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

On the Israeli side, 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed, according to the latest official figures.