The southern front flared with artillery exchanges on Monday afternoon, after Hezbollah claimed that it had detonated “explosive devices” targeting Israeli soldiers who reportedly crossed into Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah fighters “planted explosive devices in the Tal Ismail area” inside Lebanon, detonating them after Israeli soldiers “crossed the border,” the Iranian-backed group said in a statement.
Israel’s army said that four soldiers were wounded overnight in an explosion “in the area of the northern border,” but without specifying on which side of the frontier. One of the soldiers was “severely injured,” it said.
It was the first time Hezbollah claimed such an attack in six months of near daily cross-border clashes between the Iran-backed group and Israel since the Gaza war broke out.
The incident came as tensions soared over Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel late on Saturday night, in retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.
The violence flaring between Israel and Hezbollah has largely been contained to the border area.
It has killed at least 364 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes on both sides of the border.
An Israeli raid that targeted a house in the village of Siddiqin in the Tyre region late on Sunday night resulted in the injury of nine people, flattened the house and caused extensive material damage to dozens of surrounding properties.
With AFP
