UPDATES DEATH TOLL, CHANGES DECK
By Wassim Saifuldine
BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israeli forces exchanged cross-border fire amid a growing escalation between the two sides.
Hezbollah said it targeted military sites in Shomera, Avivim and Even Menachem settlements in northern Israel, resulting in direct hits.
The Israeli army, for its part, said it struck three Hezbollah command centers in southern Lebanon and carried out artillery shelling in the border towns of Alma ash-Shab and Dhayra.
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, a woman and her daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon.
The broadcaster also reported Israeli strikes in the towns of Um al-Tut and Shiheen.
Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.
The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 29,313 people following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio