Clashes between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Israeli occupation army sharply escalated in recent hours, with Israel saying it killed 10 Hezbollah fighters as the group launched rocket strikes at military sites in northern Israel.
The flare-up marks a further intensification in fighting that resumed in early March, with both sides expanding attacks across the border as Israel presses ground operations in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah widens its strikes on Israeli military targets.
On Saturday, the Israeli army announced two reserve soldiers were wounded by mortar fire launched from southern Lebanon, without disclosing where they were hit. Hezbollah said on its Telegram channel that it was engaged in direct clashes using light weapons and rocket fire with Israeli forces in the border towns of Khiam and Naqoura in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said on Telegram that it had targeted the headquarters of the Israeli army’s Northern Command north of Safed for the second time on Saturday. It also said it hit a Merkava tank with a guided missile in southern Lebanon, saying it scored a direct hit.
The group also said it targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers at the “Hadabat Al-Ajl” site north of Kfar Yuval with two rocket barrages on Saturday. The attacks also hit military deployments in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, in addition to targeting the town of Khiam and the Marj site in southern Lebanon.
On Sunday morning, Israel’s emergency service said one person was killed and several others wounded after a fire broke out in two vehicles near the Galilee, after the Israeli army reported “air raids from Lebanon on a residential area” along the northern border.
The Israeli army said it had carried out “focused” ground operations in southern Lebanon that resulted in the killing of 10 Hezbollah fighters.
In a statement posted by Arabic-language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army said the 36th Division was continuing focused ground activity in southern Lebanon as part of operations aimed at destroying Hezbollah infrastructure. It said the forces had raided a number of Hezbollah military buildings, where they found large quantities of weapons.
It added that “the 7th Brigade’s forces managed to eliminate more than 10 Hezbollah operatives who posed an immediate threat to the troops.”
The army also said Golani forces found a building that had been used as a gathering point for Hezbollah fighters, where multiple weapons were seized in the area, including rocket shells, rifles and ammunition magazines, which it said were being used to plan and carry out attacks against Israel.
Khiam was one of the first points entered by Israeli forces and targeted with airstrikes and artillery fire after clashes with Hezbollah resumed in early March, with the Lebanese group backing Iran in its war with the US and Israel and retaliating for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war in late February.
Last week, the Israeli army announced that its forces had begun limited ground operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, expanding its deployment in the south after refusing to withdraw from five sites following the end of the last war in November 2024, which had lasted a year.
Lebanon has been thrust into one of its gravest humanitarian crises in decades since the war on Iran erupted. Relentless Israeli airstrikes have killed more than a thousand people and forced over a million from their homes.
