Israel, Hezbollah fire exchange kills 3 militants and injures 11 in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights

Beirut: Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon Saturday killed three Hezbollah members, according to the Lebanese militant group which retaliated by launching a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, wounding several people. Israel’s Magen David Adom paramedic service initially reported 11 people wounded, five critically while the remaining six suffered severe injuries. Hezbollah said in a statement the attack, which saw its militants firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army post in the Golan Heights, was in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in south Lebanon. The group said earlier three of its members were killed on Saturday without specifying where. Israel’s military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot on the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them in 1981.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily fire since the war in Gaza started after Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct.7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities, displaced over 80% of the territory’s people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel intensified with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further away from the border.

Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.