HEZBOLLAH ROCKETS, ISRAELI STRIKES
Hezbollah said its fighters were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.
Lebanon’s state civil defence body said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.
Israel has intensified air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since Sep 23, uprooting more than a million people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on Sep 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes.
Israel’s military said Wednesday its troops “eliminated terrorists during close-quarter encounters and in aerial strikes” over the previous 24 hours, adding “100 Hezbollah terror targets were destroyed”.
Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast.
According to a toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.
Syrian state media reported an Israeli attack on Thursday on the central provinces of Homs and Hama.
Off the coast of Yemen, a ship was struck and damaged by an “unknown projectile”, a British maritime agency said, following months of attacks by Hezbollah and Hamas allies, the Houthis.
