Four killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon as Nasrallah warns of Hezbollah's reach

The Hamas ally has exchanged regular cross-border fire with Israel since October 7

The burnt remains of motorcycle after an Israeli attack sit at Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, on May 27, 2024. AP

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Israeli attacks on south Lebanon on Friday killed four people, including a medical worker and a woman, Hezbollah and affiliated rescuers said, with the Iran-backed group adding it had fired dozens of rockets in retaliation.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has regularly fired on Israel since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel started the war in the Gaza Strip.

The operations room of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee told AFP that “an Israeli drone strike targeted an ambulance … One rescuer was martyred and another wounded” in the border town of Naqoura.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a televised address said that Hezbollah fighters were capable of going into northern Israel but had not done so.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) also said “an enemy drone targeted a Health Committee ambulance in the town of Naqoura”, reporting casualties.

Several militant groups in Lebanon operate health centres and emergency response operations.

The operations room later told AFP that an Israeli strike on the town of Adloun had killed a woman and wounded four other people.

The NNA said an “enemy drone launched a strike targeting a house” in Adloun, around 30 kilometres from the border, “completely destroying it”.

The Israeli military said in a statement that “fighter jets struck a military structure” in the Naqoura area “where a terrorist cell's activity was identified”.

“A terrorist” in the Yarun area, elsewhere in south Lebanon, “was also struck”, the statement said, adding that a drone from Lebanon was intercepted.

Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at northern Israel “in response to the attack” in Naqoura, and also claimed other attacks on Friday, including with drones and heavy-duty missiles.

Hezbollah also announced in separate statements that two of its fighters had been killed, without specifying the location.

One person was killed in bombardment in Ain Qana, a source close to Hezbollah had said, without elaborating.

Nearly 450 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 80 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

Ten rescuers from the Islamic Health Committee are among those killed.

Israel said 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

Also on Friday, Lebanon's Foreign Ministry said the country had submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council over a strike blamed on Israel this month on a car that also damaged a nearby minibus, wounding several schoolchildren.

A source close to Hezbollah said one of the group's fighters was killed in that attack.

It was “a violation of international humanitarian law”, the Foreign Ministry said, urging the Security Council to “condemn Israel's direct, deliberate, repeated targeting of civilians”.