Hezbollah says it targeted Israeli sites near Lebanese border

BEIRUT

The Lebanese Hezbollah group claimed on Thursday it targeted two Israeli military sites near the border with southern Lebanon, while Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike on one of the border towns.

The group said in a brief statement its fighters targeted the Zebdine site in the occupied Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon with artillery shells, and the al-Summaqa site in the hills of Kfar Shuba in southern Lebanon with appropriate weapons.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes carried out an airstrike on the town of Ayta ash Shaab in the district of Tyre (south), without specifying the target of the airstrike or its results.

The Israeli army has not commented on what Hezbollah or the Lebanese agency reported as of 1650GMT.

Tensions have escalated along Lebanon’s border with Israel amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv pressed ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 34,600 people since last October following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul