Israel army says begins series of Lebanon air strikes

AFP , Wednesday 14 Feb 2024

The Israeli armysaid Wednesday its fighter jets "began a series of strikes in Lebanon", raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of the cross-border fire.

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An Israeli medical team evacuated a person injured by a rocket fired from Lebanon, at Ziv Hospital in Safed, northern Israel, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.AP

 

The armygave no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported three villages were hit.

The strikes came hours after fire from Lebanon killed one Israeli and wounded multiple people in northern Israel, according to medics.

Eight people were wounded, five of them in the town of Safed, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

An AFP photographer saw medics and troops evacuating a wounded person by military helicopter from Safed's Ziv hospital.

There was no immediate claim for the rocket launches from the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli troops since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza more than four months ago.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday that fire from southern Lebanon will end "when the attack on Gaza stops and there is a ceasefire".

"If they (Israel) broaden the confrontation, we will do the same," Nasrallah warned in a televised address.

Fears have been growing of another full-blown conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with tens of thousands displaced on both sides of the border and regional tensions soaring.

Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, at least 243 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 30 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli official figures.

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