Hezbollah says two fighters killed in Israeli strike
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BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said an Israeli air strike on Aug 11 killed two fighters from the Iran-backed group, with the Health Ministry reporting another death from an attack days ago.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israel in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s Oct 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
A strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in late July killed Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said on Aug 11 an “Israeli strike that targeted the village of Taybeh today left two dead”.
Hezbollah confirmed they were group fighters, killed in Taybeh, near the border with Israel.
The Israeli military said it had “struck throughout the day several Hezbollah military structures in the area of Adaisseh”, which is located next to Taybeh.
According to the Health Ministry, at least one Lebanese and 11 Syrians were wounded, two seriously, in an Israeli strike on Maaroub, near Derdghaiya.
Separately, the ministry said that a Lebanese who succumbed to injuries in an Israeli strike “several days ago” on the southern village of Beit Lif was a Hezbollah fighter, not a civilian as earlier reported.
Hezbollah said that overnight into Aug 12, it launched salvos of rockets “in response” to the Israeli fire, targeting troops stationed in northern Israel.
“Approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon towards the area of Kabri,” the Israeli military said on Aug 12, reporting no casualties and announcing retaliatory strikes.
The military on Aug 11 said its forces had “struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell in the area of Taybeh” as well as “a military structure in the area of Derdghaiya”.
“Following the strike, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapons inside the structure” in Derdghaiya, it added.
Hezbollah claimed several attacks against military positions in northern Israel on Aug 11, including at least two using attack drones.
The cross-border violence since early October 2023 has killed at least 565 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to the AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Thousands have been displaced from both sides of the border because of the fighting. AFP
