Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon as tension with Hezbollah soars

Jerusalem — The Israeli military said Wednesday its fighter jets “began a series of strikes in Lebanon,” raising fears of a war between the two countries after months of cross-border fire and increasing tension fueled by the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military gave no further details on the airstrikes, but Lebanese media said three villages were hit.

The strikes came hours after fire from Lebanon wounded multiple people in northern Israel, according to medics. Seven people were wounded, five of them in the town of Safed, the Magen David Adom emergency service said.

An Israeli medical team transports a person wounded by a rocket fired from southern Lebanon, at Ziv hospital in Israel’s northern city of Safed, Feb. 14, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border tension as fighting continues between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. / Credit: JALAA MAREY/AFP/Getty

An AFP photographer saw medics and troops evacuating a wounded person by military helicopter from Safed’s Ziv hospital.

There was no immediate claim for the rocket launches from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli troops since the outbreak of the war in Gaza more than four months ago.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Tuesday that fire from southern Lebanon would end “when the attack on Gaza stops and there is a cease-fire” between the group’s Palestinian allies Hamas and Israel.

“If they (Israel) broaden the confrontation, we will do the same,” Nasrallah warned in a televised address.

Fears have been growing of another full-blown conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The cross-border fire has already forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to be evacuated.

Since the Hamas-Israel war was sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s brutal Oct. 7 terror attack, at least 243 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also 30 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, nine soldiers and six civilians have been killed, according to Israeli official figures.

A full war between Israel and Hezbollah, which like Hamas is backed by Iran, would be a worrying escalation of conflict in the Middle East. Hezbollah is considered a much larger, far better equipped fighting force than Hamas, and it’s also one of the most powerful political factions in Lebanon.

/ Credit: CBS News

Nasrallah boasted last year that Hezbollah had some 100,000 fighters at its disposal, which would make it a larger fighting force than Lebanon’s state military.

Like the group’s ally Hamas, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government for almost two decades and several of its leaders, including Nasrallah, are listed as global terrorists.