A Lebanese soldier stands guard following an Israeli strike on the Bekaa on March 12, 2024. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
State media and a Hezbollah source said one person was wounded Thursday in an Israeli drone attack on eastern Lebanon following a flare-up in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
It came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, as cross-border fire intensified.
The violence has fuelled fears of all-out conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel, which last went to war in 2006.
"An Israeli drone attack hit a truck carrying fuel" for Hezbollah in the village of Douris, just southwest of the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbeck, a Hezbollah source told AFP.
The strike struck the truck driver, said the source, with the state-run National News Agency (NNA) confirming the report.
Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire in the south of Lebanon since the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas militants erupted in October.
The Baalbeck area is a stronghold of Hezbollah and has been struck by Israeli strikes in previous weeks.
But the focus of cross-border exchanges since the Gaza war began has been southern Lebanon, about 100 kilometers away and also a bastion of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
An Israeli army statement early Thursday said targets hit in southern Lebanon were in the area of Maroun al-Ras, Markaba and Alma al-Shaab, and included a Hezbollah observation post.
On Wednesday Israel's defense minister said in a statement that "many forces are deployed on the border and IDF (military) forces are carrying out offensive action currently throughout southern Lebanon."
He also said, without elaborating, that "half of Hezbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated" in months of violence, a claim that was denied by a Hezbollah source who told L'Orient Today that it was "pure propaganda" meant to "boost morale."
The Israeli army also said Wednesday that it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Wednesday's strikes came after Hezbollah said it fired a barrage of rockets across the border following a strike that killed two civilians which the group blamed on Israel.
Since Oct. 7, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah members but also 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
State media and a Hezbollah source said one person was wounded Thursday in an Israeli drone attack on eastern Lebanon following a flare-up in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
It came a day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, as cross-border fire...