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Israel has launched air strikes near the northeastern Lebanese city of Baalbek, in its deepest attack into Lebanon since the war in Gaza triggered renewed hostilities with the militant group Hizbollah.
Israel’s military on Monday said it had struck targets “used by Hizbollah’s aerial defence array” in the Bekaa Valley in response to the launch of surface-to-air missiles. Hizbollah, which is based in Lebanon, said two of its fighters were killed.
Israel also on Monday unleashed a strike on the village of Majadel in southern Lebanon, near the two countries’ shared border.
Israel’s military said it killed Hassan Hussein Salame, a senior Hizbollah commander who recently led “terrorist activities” against Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The incidents are part of an increase in crossfire between Israel’s military and Iran-backed Hizbollah.
The two sides have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since Hamas militants in Gaza mounted an assault on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas in Gaza.
More than 200 Hizbollah fighters and about 30 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since the advent of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a tally by the Financial Times.
Seven Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers have been killed by Hizbollah fire since October, according to the Israeli military.
The hostilities between the Israeli military and Hizbollah had mostly focused on a limited band of territory a couple of dozen kilometres into each country.
But Israel has widened its targets in recent weeks, striking the Lebanese town of Ghaziyeh, about 5km south of the coastal city of Sidon, as well as Jadra, a city just 30km south of the capital Beirut.
Israel’s attack on northeastern Lebanon targeted an area about 100km from its border.
The strikes hit the village of Buday, about 18km from Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley, where Hizbollah holds significant sway.
Citing security officials, local media reported several strikes hit a convoy of trucks and a food warehouse.
The attack came hours after Hizbollah said its fighters had shot down an Israeli Hermes-450 drone.
Hizbollah later said it retaliated for the Baalbek strikes by firing 60 Katyusha rockets towards a command post in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
In a speech on Monday evening, Hizbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem said the group was ready to expand operations and use more of its weapons “if the Israelis go too far”.
“Everything we have used until now in the fighting is the minimum of what we possess,” Qassem added.
Hizbollah has said it would halt its attacks on Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
Hassan Nasrallah, head of the powerful Iran-backed movement, has said his forces were acting in “solidarity” with Hamas as the war in the coastal enclave continued.
The war in Gaza has claimed the lives of more than 29,500 Palestinians, according to officials in the enclave.
On Sunday, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant vowed to step up the attacks on Hizbollah, even if a ceasefire was reached with Hamas.
“If anyone here thinks that when we reach an agreement to release hostages in the south and the fire stops [in Gaza] temporarily, this will make things easier here — they are mistaken,” he told reporters.
No crossfire was reported with Hizbollah during a week-long truce between Israel’s military and Hamas in November.
Pressure has been mounting on the Israeli government to resolve the situation on its northern border because of the forced displacement of more than 80,000 residents after the escalation of hostilities with Hizbollah.
Tens of thousands of southern Lebanese residents have also been forcibly displaced from their homes.
