(Beirut) A Hezbollah fighter, his wife and their son were killed Tuesday by an Israeli strike targeting a house in Houla, a town in southern Lebanon bordering Israel, to which Hezbollah said it responded by targeting civilian targets. in the north of the country.
“The three civilians, Hassan Hussein, his wife, Rouwaïda Moustafa and their 25-year-old son, Ali Hussein, were killed in the enemy raid which targeted a three-story house in Houla,” the National Security Agency said. information.
In the evening, the man initially designated as a civilian victim was then presented by the Lebanese Hezbollah as being one of its fighters who “died a martyr”.
Since the start of the war on October 7 in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah has targeted Israeli military positions on the border almost daily, in support of its Palestinian ally.
Israel responds by carrying out strikes against Hezbollah positions and targeted operations against leaders of the Islamist group.
Shortly after the raid on Tuesday, Hezbollah said it had launched “dozens of rockets” in the evening on the Kibbutz of Kfar Blum, located six kilometers from the nearest border point and “targeted a building” in the town of Kyriat Shmona .
The Lebanese formation said it had acted “in response to Israeli attacks against villages in the south and the homes of civilians”, in particular that which killed three members of the same family in Houla, whose father was later revealed be a fighter for the Islamist party.
Hezbollah also claimed several attacks against Israeli military positions on the border on Tuesday.
“All our weapons”
On Monday, a foreign agricultural worker was killed on the Israeli side by a missile fired from Lebanon according to the Israeli army, and three rescue workers affiliated with Hezbollah died in southern Lebanon in an Israeli raid, according to the Lebanese outfit.
American envoy Amos Hochstein said Monday from Beirut that a diplomatic solution was “the only way out” to put an end to cross-border clashes between Israel and Lebanon.
A possible ceasefire in Gaza “will not” automatically mean “a cessation of violence on the Lebanese front”, he warned before going to Israel.
Hezbollah repeats that it will only stop its attacks against Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.
But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant recently warned that a possible truce in Gaza would not undermine Israel’s “objective” of pushing Hezbollah from its northern border, by force or diplomacy.
“We do not want war but we are ready to face it,” declared Tuesday the head of the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc, Mohamed Raad, quoted by ANI.
“We did not use all our weapons, nor the weapons of open conflict. We have not deployed all of our arsenal, and the enemy knows it,” he insisted.
At least 302 people, most of Hezbollah fighters and allied groups and at least 51 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since October 7, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, ten soldiers and seven civilians died.