(Beirut) Lebanese Hezbollah claimed Monday to have activated “explosive devices” when Israeli soldiers crossed the border from the Lebanese side, with Israel reporting four wounded soldiers.
This is the first time that pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which has exchanged fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war more than six months ago, has announced such an operation.
Hezbollah fighters “placed charges in the Tal Ismail area, near the” Israeli border, which exploded after Israeli soldiers “crossed the border,” the group said in a statement.
For its part, the Israeli army announced that four of its soldiers, “active in an area on the northern border”, were injured during the night, including one “seriously, following an explosion of “origin unknown”.
The Israeli army has not confirmed that its soldiers have crossed the border into Lebanon.
Questioned by AFP, she refused to give details, limiting herself to indicating that an “investigation is underway”.
Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas on October 7, there have been daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, which claims to support its ally, the Palestinian Islamist movement.
The Hezbollah attack comes following a spike in tension this weekend.
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, Iran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel using drones and missiles, in response to a strike on its consulate in Damascus.
At the same time, Hezbollah announced that it had launched two salvos of Katyusha rockets on Israeli military positions located in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan. Israel, for its part, carried out several strikes on Lebanese territory.