Beirut:

A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village Sunday killed a couple and their child, the latest deadly incident in the border region.

Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have exchanged regular cross-border fire since the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s unprecedented October attack on southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza.

Fighting intensified in the past few weeks, with Israel striking deeper into Lebanese territory, while Hezbollah has stepped up its missile and drone attacks on military positions in northern Israel.

“The dad, the mother and their little son were martyred”, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the strike killed “three civilians” and wounded several others.

Hezbollah had on Saturday evening said it fired on military positions in northern Israel.

The Lebanese movement has repeatedly declared that only a ceasefire in Gaza will put an end to its attacks on Israel.

The latest violence came as a Hamas delegation met with mediators in Egypt for talks on a possible truce deal in the Gaza war.

Both the United States and France have made diplomatic efforts to calm tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

In Lebanon, at least 389 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly operatives but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

The death count includes at least 11 Hamas fighters.

Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.

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Jerusalem:

Israeli forces are carrying out “offensive action” across southern Lebanon, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border.

“Many forces are deployed on the border and IDF (army) forces are carrying out offensive action currently throughout southern Lebanon,” Gallant said in a statement, also claiming that “half of Hezbollah’s commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated” in months of violence.

“The other half are in hiding and abandoning the field to IDF operations,” he added without giving a specific number.

In a separate statement, the army said it had struck 40 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

“A short while ago, IDF (army) fighter jets and artillery struck approximately 40 Hezbollah terror targets” around Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, including storage facilities and weaponry, it said.

The army said Hezbollah “has established dozens of terror means and infrastructures in the area” to attack Israel.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel had carried out more than 13 strikes near Aita al-Shaab and surrounding villages.

“Israeli warplanes carried out … more than 13 air strikes targeting the outskirts of the towns of Aita al-Shaab, Ramya, Jabal Balat and Khallet Warda,” it said.

The strikes came after Hezbollah said it fired a fresh barrage of rockets across the border on Wednesday after a strike blamed on Israel killed two civilians.

The group had already fired rockets at northern Israel late on Tuesday “in response” to the civilian deaths.

Cross-border exchanges of fire have flared between the Israeli army and Iran-backed Hezbollah since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

Since October 7, at least 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also 72 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Israel says 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

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Beirut:

A fresh salvo of rockets was fired from south Lebanon towards Israel on Tuesday, Lebanese state media said, an attack that drew retaliatory fire, according to a military source. It is the third day the border area has seen an exchange of fire and comes after Hamas terrorists launched an unprecedented multi-pronged attack on Israel’s southern flank from the blockaded Gaza Strip on the weekend. 

“Rockets were fired from… southern Lebanon towards the Galilee” region in northern Israel, the official National News Agency (NNA) said, while the military source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed that it triggered retaliatory Israeli fire. 

The military source said the rockets were fired from the town of Qlaileh, located in the south Lebanon district of Tyre.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Lebanese side, according to NNA. 

No group immediately claimed the rocket fire.

“In response to the launches identified from Lebanese territory toward Israeli territory, IDF (army) soldiers are currently responding with artillery fire,” Israeli forces said. 

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel, said it was in contact with both sides “to de-escalate this very dangerous situation.”

Tuesday’s border exchange comes a day after Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed three Hezbollah members, according to the Iran-backed group.

Hezbollah said it retaliated by striking two Israeli barracks.

Israel’s army said its soldiers had “killed a number of armed suspects” who had crossed the frontier from Lebanon.

On Sunday, Hezbollah said it had fired artillery shells and guided missiles at Israel, “in solidarity” with attacks launched from Gaza by its ally Hamas.

Israel’s army said it hit back with artillery into southern Lebanon.

In 2006 Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war that left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers. The two countries remain technically at war.

Israel has warned Hezbollah against involvement in the war with Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)