The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Monday that troops targeted an armed terrorist cell inside Lebanon amid escalating tensions between the two neighboring nations.
In a post on X, the IDF’s spokesperson in Arabic, Avichay Adraee, said that “following up on the alerts in the northern region, two mortar shells were fired from Lebanon, which fell inside Israeli territory in an open area, without causing any casualties”.
“The IDF bombed firing sources inside Lebanon with artillery,” he added.
The spokesperson further said that IDF forces on Sunday night also “attacked a cell of armed saboteurs that was spotted in the Beranit area on the border, and casualties were detected”.
On Sunday, missiles and anti-tank rockets were launched from Lebanon towards the Krayot area, north of Haifa, and a community near the border.
According to Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service, a total of 18 civilians and soldiers were injured, one with critical injuries.
Lebanese military sources told Xinhua news agency that one Hezbollah militant was killed and four civilians were injured in the country’s southern border village of Yarine in fighting with Israeli forces on Sunday.
The sources said that Israel’s heavy artillery bombed seven towns in southwestern Lebanon and 17 in the southeast, destroying over 30 houses, and warplanes and drones raided the outskirts of 18 southern towns.
Hezbollah said it launched rockets and artillery attacks on three Israeli barracks and 10 other sites facing southern Lebanon.
The militant’s death brings the total number of casualties on the Lebanese side since October 8 to 97 — 76 Hezbollah terrorists; a member of the Amal Movement; nine Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants; and 11 civilians, including a photojournalist.
The Lebanon-Israel border witnessed increased tension for five weeks after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel on October 8 in support of the unprecedented Hamas attacks on southern Israel the previous day.
This prompted the Israeli forces to respond by firing heavy artillery toward several areas in southeastern Lebanon.
