Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon as cross-border fire escalates
Al Jazeera
Hezbollah dismisses Israeli claim that it has killed half of the group’s commanders in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military says it hit dozens of targets in southern Lebanon while the Lebabese armed group Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli border village as fighting continues to escalate.
The Israeli military said the strikes in the area of Aita al-Shaab, about 3km (1.9 miles) inside the Lebanese border, hit around 40 targets including storage facilities and weapons in an area it said was used extensively by Hezbollah forces.
“There is continuous offensive action by [Israeli military] forces in all of southern Lebanon as well as in other parts of Lebanon. The operational results are very impressive,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement on Wednesday following an operational meeting at the military’s Northern Command.
Gallant said half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon had been killed by Israeli forces, a claim rebuked by the Iran-backed group.
A Hezbollah official dismissed the assertion as “completely worthless” and aimed at boosting Israeli morale. He said the group regularly published pictures and biographical details of its members killed in the fighting.
