2 killed, 3 injured in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon

Beirut, April 20: Two Hezbollah fighters were killed and three civilians wounded in Israeli airstrikes on several villages in southern Lebanon, said Lebanese military sources.

The military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that the Israeli army destroyed a house in the village of Aita al-Shaab in the border area with two air-to-ground missiles. A Hezbollah fighter was killed in the attack, while two civilians were wounded.

Another Israeli warplane targeted a two-storeyed house in the village of Blida in southeastern Lebanon, killing another Hezbollah member while injuring one more civilian, according to the sources.

Israeli warplanes and drones carried out a series of airstrikes on five towns and villages in the eastern and central parts of the border region, causing damage to 17 houses, the sources added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah confirmed that it had attacked several Israeli sites.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7 the same year. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 429 people on the Lebanese side, including 274 Hezbollah members and 76 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.