Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas said they fired rockets and explosive-laden drones at Israeli positions on Saturday in retaliation for deadly attacks on civilians in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Since the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, sparking the war in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has been engaged in near-daily gun battles with Israeli forces that back Hamas.
Earlier in the day, Lebanon’s state-run Press Agency reported that Syrians, including children, were injured when “an enemy drone targeted an empty four-wheel drive vehicle” near a tent near the Syrian border.
Dr. Mounes Karakesh, director of Marjayoun Public Hospital, said one woman and her three children, two of whom are minors, were admitted with shrapnel injuries after the attack outside Burj Al Mulk.
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Among the victims was an 11-year-old boy who was in critical condition with shrapnel injuries and a head injury, Karakesh told AFP.
Hezbollah said it had fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at the Dafna region of northern Israel, targeting it for the first time “in retaliation for attacks on civilians.”
Hamas’s militant wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired a volley of rockets from southern Lebanon at Israeli military positions in northern Galilee “in retaliation for the Zionist massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
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Iran-backed Hezbollah said later the same day it had fired “explosive-laden drones” at “artillery and missile positions” in the Golan Heights, as well as Israeli forces and the Iron Dome site.
Before the drone attack, the Israeli military said a total of 45 “projectiles” were fired from Lebanon into the occupied Golan Heights and Galilee on Saturday afternoon, reporting no casualties.
The army said it struck “a launch pad from which shells were fired towards the Golan Heights” in southern Lebanon, and also targeted “another Hezbollah launch pad.”
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned that the Iran-backed group would attack new targets in Israel if more civilians were killed in Israeli attacks.
At least five people were killed in Lebanon in Israeli strikes on Thursday, including the commander of a group allied with Hamas, security sources and militant groups said.
Lebanese state media reported on Tuesday that Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon had killed five Syrians, three of them children, and Hezbollah announced rocket fire at Israel in retaliation.
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At least 515 people have been killed in Lebanon in violence since October, according to an AFP tally.
Most of the dead are combatants, but at least 104 civilians are also among the dead.
Israeli officials said 18 soldiers and 13 civilians were killed on the Israeli side.
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