Hezbollah and Israel trade blows as region remains on edge

Lebanese group fires rockets into Israel-occupied Golan Heights after Israeli strike on Bekaa region

The aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in March. Reuters

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Lebanon's Hezbollah group fired a barrage of missiles at a military base in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday morning in response to Israeli air strikes on the Bekaa region.

At least 55 rockets were fired into the Golan, the Israeli army said. Some of the projectiles were intercepted while the others struck open areas. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Hezbollah said the salvo was a “response to the Israeli enemy’s attack on the Bekaa region”, where air strikes injured at least 11 people, including two children, in the Baalbek district on Monday evening.

Israel said the raids targeted a “number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities”.

“Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities,” the Israeli army said.

Video circulating on social media showed massive explosions as Israeli jets flew away after the strikes.

On Saturday, 10 civilians were killed in an Israeli strike on what the army said was a weapons depot in Lebanon’s southern Nabatieh district. All of the victims, including a woman and her child, are believed to be Syrian and from the same family.

A Syrian woman mourns over the dead bodies of her loved ones killed by an Israeli air strike in Wadi Al Kfour, Nabatieh province, south Lebanon, on Saturday. AP

It was one of the deadliest strikes on Lebanon since the cross-border fire began on October 8.

The raid targeted a residential building in an industrial area close to the city of Nabatieh. Local residents disputed the Israeli claim that there was a weapons facility in the area.

Fears that the near-daily exchanges could lead to a full-scale war have escalated after an Israeli drone strike killed top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut in late July, along with a number of civilians.

Hezbollah has promised to respond to the killing, while its main backer, Iran, has threatened Israel with retribution for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, hours after Mr Shukr's death. Israel has acknowledged killing Mr Shukr but has not commented on Mr Haniyeh's assassination.

More than 550 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the cross-border conflict broke out in October in parallel with Israel's war on Gaza. While most deaths have been Hezbollah members or allied fighters, dozens of civilians have also been killed.

On the Israeli side, the army has acknowledged the deaths of 22 soldiers and 26 civilians.