At least two members of Hezbollah were killed in two Israeli strikes which targeted eastern Lebanon on Monday, for the first time since the start of the war in Gaza, two security sources told AFP.
One of the strikes targeted a Hezbollah depot and the other a building housing a civilian institution belonging to the pro-Iranian Islamist group on the outskirts of the town of Baalbeck, known for its Roman temple, one of these said. sources.
Both sources said two Hezbollah members were killed.
The Israeli army limited itself to indicating, in a press release, that it was “currently carrying out strikes on Hezbollah terrorist objectives deep in Lebanon”.
The strikes came after Hezbollah announced on Monday that it had shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon.
The Baalbeck region, in the eastern Bekaa plain bordering Syria, is a stronghold of Hezbollah which has a significant military presence there.
The strikes on Monday are the first to target Hezbollah outside the region of southern Lebanon, the scene of daily violence between the Shiite formation and the Israeli army since the start of the war in Gaza.
On January 2, an Israeli raid targeted a senior official of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, in the suburbs of Beirut. Saleh al Arouri was killed and six other Hamas members were also killed.
Since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Hezbollah has targeted Israeli military positions daily, in support of its Palestinian ally, and Israel has carried out strikes on Lebanon.
On Monday, the Lebanese formation announced that its “anti-aircraft defense unit” had “shot down a large Israeli drone of the Hermes 450 type using a surface-to-air missile”.
She specified that the incident took place in the region of Iqlim al-Touffah, a Hezbollah stronghold about twenty kilometers from the border with Israel.
The Israeli military has confirmed that one of its drones operating in Lebanon has been shot down.
At least 280 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters, as well as militants from other allied groups and 44 civilians, have been killed in more than four months of conflict, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, ten soldiers and six civilians were killed, according to the army.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Sunday that a possible truce in fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip would not undermine Israel’s “goal” of pushing Hezbollah from its northern border .