Beirut:
Hezbollah said it “targeted” Israeli troops carrying out “movements” near the Lebanese border Tuesday, with a source close to the group saying the soldiers were “right on the border” as fears of an incursion grow.
The militant group said it targeted “enemy soldiers’ movements in the orchards opposite Adaisseh and Kfarkila” near the border.
The US State Department had earlier said Israel was conducting limited operations targeting Hezbollah inside Lebanon.
A Lebanese security official reported “Israeli army movements on the southern Lebanese border”.
Israeli troops are “launching artillery shells from areas that it declared as closed military zones” earlier on Monday,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Fears of an incursion also prompted Lebanon’s army to move troops away from its southern border, a Lebanese military official told AFP Monday.
The Lebanese army is “repositioning and regrouping forces” from the southern border, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Lebanon’s national army is dwarfed by the military power of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
On Monday evening, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel reported “Zionist artillery shelling” near the border areas of Wazzani, the Khiam valley, Alma Al-Shaab and Naqura.
Wazzani and Khiam are right across from Metula in the north of Israel, where the military on Monday declared a closed military zone in Metula, Misgav Am, and Kfar Giladi.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported “continued artillery shelling” on border areas including Wazzani and the nearby Marjayoun plain and Khiam.
Last Friday, the Israeli army killed Hezbollah’s powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah in a strike on the group’s southern Beirut bastion.
For the past week, Israel has launched an intense bombing campaign on the country’s east, south and southern Beirut suburbs, killing hundreds of people and displacing up to one million, according to Lebanese officials.
The war follows nearly one year of cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah that the Lebanese group said were in support of Palestinian ally Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
