Israel launches strikes on eastern Lebanon after Hezbollah downs drone
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Israel launches strikes on eastern Lebanon after Hezbollah downs drone
(Reuters) - Israel said it launched air strikes on eastern Lebanon and hit Hezbollah infrastructure sites early on Sunday after the armed group downed an Israeli drone, as both sides continue to trade fire amid escalating regional tensions.
The Israeli army said in a statement that fighter jets struck a military complex and three other sites belonging to Hezbollah in the eastern city of Baalbek.
It said the latest attack was in response to Iran-backed Hezbollah's downing of an unmanned aerial vehicle in Lebanese airspace, which the group identified as the Israeli-made Hermes 900 drone.
Hezbollah said it later fired dozens of Katyusha rockets that hit an air defence base in the occupied Golan Heights, in retaliation for the Israeli raids on eastern Lebanon.
The Israeli army was not immediately available for comment on that account.
Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel across Lebanon's southern border since Oct. 8, a day after the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel that triggered Israel's war in Gaza and led to escalating regional tensions.
Israeli shelling has killed around 270 Hezbollah fighters and around 50 civilians, security sources say. In southern Lebanon some 90,000 people have also been displaced, while more than 96,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's northern border area, officials from both sides say.
The U.S. and other countries have sought a diplomatic resolution to the exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah said it would not halt fire before a ceasefire is implemented in Gaza.
Two security sources said the latest Israeli attack on Lebanon targeted a training camp belonging to Hezbollah in Janta village near the border with Syria and the town of Safri near Baalbek.
There were no reported casualties from those strikes, the sources said.
