Tensions continue to rise on Israel’s northern border as Israel and Lebanon reported civilian casualties on Sunday as a result of ongoing attacks between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
IDF chief Herzi Halevi said in a statement on Sunday that the military was ready at any time to enter an “offensive mode” in the north.
Both Israel and Lebanon – where the powerful paramilitary group Hezbollah operates in the south – said civilians died along the border on Sunday.
In Lebanon: Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported that an Israeli strike hit a civilian vehicle in southern Lebanon, killing four relatives, including three children.
According to NNA, the vehicle was on a road between the villages of Ainata and Aitaroun, near the border with Israel, when it was hit.
According to Lebanese state media, a grandmother and her three grandchildren were killed in the attack. The children’s mother was also injured and taken to a nearby hospital.
Israeli forces said they had “identified and attacked a suspicious vehicle in Lebanon” but were still investigating claims that there were civilians inside.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired multiple rockets at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel at 7:20 p.m. local time (12:20 p.m. ET) in response to the attack.
In Israel: According to an IDF spokesman to Arab media, Avichay Adraee, an Israeli citizen was killed in the Hezbollah attack.
“Today, Hezbollah continued to attack Israeli military sites and civilian cities without distinguishing between civilians and military personnel. One of the attacks resulted in the death of an Israeli citizen,” Adraee said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Adraee accused Hezbollah of destabilizing security on the northern border, saying the group was “indiscriminately targeting residents of the north, thereby endangering stability in southern Lebanon.”
Some background information: Following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, there has been an ongoing exchange of fire across the border between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in recent weeks.
The group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, broke his nearly months-long silence on Friday on the Hamas attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.
He said Hezbollah was “prepared for all scenarios” and that any escalation by the Israeli army on the border would be a “historic folly” that would trigger a full response.
But he also said Hezbollah’s “primary goal” was to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and said it was up to the United States – which he blamed directly for the bloodshed in the Palestinian enclave – to enforce a cessation of hostilities .
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned Nasrallah and other enemies of Israel not to exploit the current fighting to spark a larger conflict in the region. Preventing a multi-front war was a central focus of the US Secretary of State’s turbulent diplomatic tour of the Middle East this weekend.