BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said Israel on April 14 struck one of its buildings in Lebanon’s east, close to the Syrian border, as tensions soared after Iran directly attacked Israel.

“The Israeli strike targeted an area... near Baalbek and targeted a two-storey building belonging to Hezbollah,” a source within the group told AFP, adding there were no casualties.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also reported that “an enemy air strike targeted a building” in the village of Nabi Sheet and “destroyed it”.

Earlier on April 14, Hezbollah said it had twice launched barrages of rockets towards the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, after it joined in the major Iranian drone and missile attack against Israel.

The Iranian attack was in response to an April 1 air strike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, killing seven Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

Hamas ally Hezbollah has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, triggering the war in the Gaza Strip.

The violence has so far killed at least 363 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes on both sides of the border. AFP