1 killed, 7 injured in Israeli airstrikes in S. Lebanon

BEIRUT, July 4 (Xinhua) -- A Hezbollah member was killed, and seven civilians were injured on Thursday in Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The military sources, who spoke anonymously, said that Israel carried out 12 airstrikes targeting nine towns and villages and its artillery bombed 17 border towns and villages, killing a Hezbollah member and injuring seven civilians.

The sources noted that the Hezbollah member was killed, and three civilians were injured in an Israeli raid targeting a house in the village of Houla.

In another Israeli strike in the village of Kfarchouba, a shell falling on a house wounded two civilians, while two others were injured in a bombing on the southeastern town of Shebaa, the sources added.

They specifically noted that four members of the Civil Defense sustained minor injuries and suffered suffocation while extinguishing a fire in the municipality of Kounine.

The sources indicated that the Israeli bombing destroyed 17 homes, damaged 35 others, and led to nine fires in the border area.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced that it attacked several Israeli military sites in retaliation for Israel's assassination of its senior military commander, Mohammad Naameh Nasser, a day earlier.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The level of tension between Hezbollah and the Israeli army has escalated recently, as the Israeli military announced "its approval of operational plans for an attack on Lebanon."

Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that no place in Israel "will be safe" from his party's missiles in the event of the outbreak of a war.