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Israel launched airstrikes near the northeastern Lebanese town of Baalbek, in its deepest attack in Lebanon since the war in Gaza triggered renewed hostilities with the militant group Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said on Monday it struck targets “used by Hezbollah’s air defense system” in the Bekaa Valley in response to surface-to-air missile launches. Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, said two of its fighters were killed.
Israel also launched an attack on Monday in the village of Majadel in southern Lebanon, near the border shared between the two countries.
The Israeli army said it killed Hassan Hussein Salame, a senior Hezbollah commander who recently conducted “terrorist activities” against Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The incidents are part of an increase in crossfire between the Israeli army and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
The two sides have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since Hamas militants in Gaza launched an assault on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas in Gaza.
According to a Financial Times tally, more than 200 Hezbollah fighters and around 30 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
According to the Israeli army, seven Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah fire since October.
Hostilities between the Israeli army and Hezbollah have mainly concentrated on a limited band of territory about twenty kilometers inside each country.
But Israel has expanded its targets in recent weeks, hitting the Lebanese town of Ghaziyeh, about 5km south of the coastal city of Sidon, as well as Jadra, a town just 30km south of the capital Beirut.
The Israeli attack on northeast Lebanon targeted an area about 100 kilometers from its border.
The attacks hit the village of Buday, about 18 kilometers from Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah holds considerable influence.
Citing security officials, local media reported that several attacks hit a convoy of trucks and a food warehouse.
The attack came just hours after Hezbollah said its fighters had shot down an Israeli Hermes-450 drone.
Hezbollah later said it responded to the Baalbek attacks by firing 60 Katyusha rockets at a command post in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In a speech Monday evening, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group was ready to expand operations and use more weapons “if the Israelis go too far.”
“Everything we have used in the fighting so far is the minimum of what we have,” Qassem added.
Hezbollah has said it will stop its attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
Hassan Nasrallah, head of the powerful Iranian-backed movement, said his forces were acting in “solidarity” with Hamas as the war in the coastal enclave continued.
According to officials in the enclave, the war in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 29,500 Palestinians.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed on Sunday to intensify attacks against Hezbollah even if a ceasefire was reached with Hamas.
“If anyone here thinks that when we reach an agreement to free the hostages in the south the fire will stop [in Gaza] temporarily, this will make things easier here: they are wrong,” he told reporters.
No crossfire with Hezbollah was reported during the week-long truce between the Israeli army and Hamas in November.
Pressure has mounted on the Israeli government to resolve the situation on the northern border following the forced displacement of more than 80,000 residents following the escalation of hostilities with Hezbollah.
Tens of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon were also forcibly displaced from their homes.