BEIRUT – At least eight people, including Hezbollah fighters, have been killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Lebanon, security sources told Reuters on March 27.

Five were killed in a strike on the border village of Tair Harfa, and a strike shortly afterwards that hit a restaurant in the border town of Naqoura killed at least another three people, the security sources and official Lebanese media said.

Iran-backed Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of rockets over the border at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel early on March 27 in response to deadly Israeli air strikes on the village of Hebbariyeh in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Those air strikes near two towns in north-east Lebanon killed three Hezbollah militants, the heavily armed Shi’ite Muslim group said.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza in October 2023, in the biggest escalation between the long-time enemies since a month-long war in 2006. REUTERS