Lebanon-Israel border clashes escalate, 5 Hezbollah fighters killed

Violence escalated on the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday with five fighters from Lebanon’s heavily armed Hezbollah group killed during operations against Israel, security sources in Lebanon said.

In the most serious flare-up at the frontier in 17 years, Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces have traded fire almost daily since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel responded with fierce air strikes on Gaza.

The Israeli army, which said it would shoot anyone coming near the border or meddling with its fence, said it killed four people on Tuesday who had tried to cross the barrier and plant an explosive device. It did not say where this took place.

Hezbollah confirmed that five of its fighters had been killed but it was not immediately clear if any of them were the same ones referred to by Israel.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad which both have operatives in Lebanon, said it carried out attacks including a guided-missile strike against an Israeli army vehicle in the Israeli border town of Metula.

Read more: Reuters