An Israeli soldier drinks coffee while manning a checkpoint near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, November 1, 2023. Portal/Violeta Santos Moura LICENSES
BEIRUT, Nov 2 (Portal) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Thursday it had carried out several attacks on Israeli army positions, including for the first time with explosive drones, and Israel had launched air strikes on southern Lebanon, sparking a sharp escalation in violence have.
The Israeli army said it responded to attacks from Lebanon toward Israel with air strikes on Hezbollah targets and tank and artillery fire.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been engaged in firefights with Israeli forces across the Israeli-Lebanese border since the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel went to war on October 7, marking the deadliest escalation on the border since a 2006 war .
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will give his first speech since the start of the war on Friday.
The heavily armed Shiite Islamist group said in a statement that its fighters carried out 19 simultaneous attacks on Israeli army positions in Israel using guided missiles, artillery and other weapons.
Hezbollah said two drones loaded with explosives struck an Israeli army command position in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the border.
Israeli shelling hit the outskirts of the town of Khiyam about 6 km (3.75 miles) from the border, slightly wounding a civilian, the town’s mayor Ali Rashed told Portal. “His house caught fire and people are putting it out,” he said by phone.
“The intensity of the shelling was higher than on previous days. The shelling and counter-shelling were stronger than ever before and covered the entire area,” he said.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that Israeli shells hit various areas in the south along the border.
Hezbollah’s attack with explosive drones came days after the group said it had used a surface-to-air missile against an Israeli drone for the first time.
Israel has owned the Shebaa Farms, a 39 square kilometer area, since the 1967 Middle East war. Both Syria and Lebanon claim the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese.
Reporting by Laila Bassam, Riham Alkousaa and Maya Gebeily in Beirut and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alison Williams, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Cynthia Osterman
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