Israel launches series of Lebanon air strikes, raising fears of war

Israeli military gives no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported air raids on southern villages

The Israeli military said Wednesday its fighter jets “began a series of strikes in Lebanon,” heightening concerns about a potential conflict between the two countries following months of cross-border skirmishes.

The military gave no further details of the air strikes, while Lebanese media reported air raids on southern villages, including Adchit, Sawwaneh and Shihabiyeh.

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

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

An Agence France-Presse (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 militant group Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli troops since the outbreak of the war in Gaza over 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 cease-fire” between the group’s Palestinian allies, Hamas and arch-foe Israel.

“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.

“I don’t know when the war in the north is, I can tell you that the likelihood of it happening in the coming months is much higher than it was in the past,” Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said last month.

Since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war on Oct.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.

Source: AFP

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