BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it attacked an Israeli army base near the border on Wednesday, with the latest in a series of tit-for-tat strikes wounding 14 soldiers, according to Israel’s military.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire since October 7, triggering crisis in the Gaza Strip.

But Wednesday’s incident marked the third day in a row that Hezbollah strikes wounded people in Israel, with regional tensions high after Iran launched a direct attack on Israel over the weekend in retaliation for a deadly strike on Tehran’s Damascus consulate.

Hours after the strike on Arab al-Aramshe, an Arab-majority village in northern Israel near the border, Israeli forces hit targets in eastern Lebanon, a Hezbollah source said.

According to the source, the strike targeted a warehouse in Iaat, a residential area near Baalbek, and “lightly” wounded one man. The official National News Agency reported three drone strikes in the area, a Hezbollah stronghold far from the border with Israel.

A photographer said the warehouse that was hit stored vegetables and agricultural produce.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which earlier said 14 soldiers were wounded in the strike on northern Israel, including six seriously.

Hezbollah said it launched “a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a new military reconnaissance command centre in Arab al-Aramshe”.

According to the Israeli army, “a number of launches from Lebanon were identified crossing into the area of Arab al-Aramshe,” and Israeli forces struck the sources of the fire.

Hezbollah said the attack came “in response to the enemy assassinating a number of resistance fighters in Ain Baal and Shehabiya” on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Israel said its strikes in south Lebanon killed two local Hezbollah commanders and another operative, with the Iran-backed group saying three of its members were killed as it launched rockets in retaliation.

Local Israeli authorities said three people were wounded in a strike from Lebanon earlier that day.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2024