An Israeli raid on Saturday targeted a Lebanese aluminum factory about fifteen kilometers north of the border between the two countries, in a rare attack on the interior of Lebanese territory since October 7, local media said.
The official news agency ANI, which reported no casualties, said that “an enemy drone fired two missiles at an aluminum factory on the Toul-Kfour road,” causing a fire.
Two injured civilians were taken to hospital, the mayor of the town of Kfour, Khodr Saad, told AFP.
ANI states that this is the first attack against the Nabatiyeh region since the last conflict in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese formation supporting the Palestinian Hamas, which launched a bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7 committed.
Since then, Israel, which has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, has waged a deadly war in Gaza, stoking fears of a regional conflagration.
On November 11, the Israeli army carried out its first attack in Lebanon against a vehicle in Zahrani, about 45 km north of the shared border.
Prior to this incident, daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel since the start of the war were generally limited to the border area between the two countries.
ANI also reported Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes on several locations in the south of the country.
Hezbollah, for its part, claimed to have shot down an Israeli Hermes 450 attack drone “with a surface-to-air missile,” as well as five other attacks on Israel’s northern border.
“As long as there is a war against Gaza (…), all resistance forces (…) will continue to put pressure on Israel. “There is no question today of talking about a ceasefire on one front and not on the other,” a senior member of the movement, Hachem Safieddine, said on Saturday.
The day before, the pro-Iranian party claimed responsibility for 13 attacks on Israeli military positions on the border, including an attack on a gathering of Israeli soldiers using “suicide drones.”
According to an AFP count, daily exchanges of fire in southern Lebanon have killed at least 90 people since October 7, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also ten civilians.
According to Israeli authorities, nine people were killed on the Israeli side, including six soldiers.