4 Hezbollah militants killed on Lebanon-Israel border

Beirut/Jerusalem, Oct 24 (IANS) Four Hezbollah militants were killed and four others injured during confrontations with the Israeli army on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Sources from the Lebanese Internal Security Forces told Xinhua that the militants were struck by Israeli drones that carried out four raids, during which eight missiles were fired at dawn and noon on Monday in the town of Wadi Khansa, Kfarhamam village and the Bastra Farm in southeast Lebanon.

The sources added that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) communicated with Israel to stop bombardment and allow the Lebanese Red Cross to reach the victims and transport them to the Marjeyoun Governmental Hospital.

The outskirts of Kfarchouba, Rashaya al-Fakhar villages, and Jabal Sadana area in southeast Lebanon, were subjected to 155-mm Israeli artillery shelling, which caused material damage, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, the Hezbollah claimed that it had attacked the Misgav Am, a settlement in northern Israel, and the Al-Abad site on the border in southeast Lebanon with guided missiles and artillery shells, causing casualties, which the militant group did not specify.

On its part, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck Hezbollah posts in Lebanon in several strikes on Monday night, which included a military compound, a military post and an observation post in southern Lebanon used by the militants.

“The strikes were conducted in responses to the rocket and anti-tank missile launches from Lebanese territory today,” the IDF said late Monday night.  

The border tensions have displaced more than 19,000 people in Lebanon, and the numbers are expected to rise if there is an escalation in violence, a spokesperson at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.

The majority of the displaced, according to IOM, joined their family members who reside in areas other than southern Lebanon.

In contrast, others took refuge in three schools that were turned into shelter centers in Lebanon's southern city of Tyre.

The escalation on the Lebanese-Israeli border began when Hezbollah fired multiple rockets on October 8 toward Israeli military sites in support of the Hamas's surprise attack on the Jewish nation on October 7.

In response, the Israeli forces fired heavy artillery on southeastern Lebanon on the same day.