BEIRUT, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Two Hezbollah fighters were killed on Wednesday in confrontations on the Lebanon-Israel border, Lebanese military sources said.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the casualties resulted from 18 Israeli airstrikes targeting villages and towns in southern Lebanon.
Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles moved to the front lines along the border with Lebanon. The Israeli activity spanned from Naqoura in the west to Shebaa in the east, said the sources.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out a series of attacks using Burkan missiles on Israeli gatherings and sites along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Earlier in the day, Candice Ardell, deputy director of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) media office, urged Lebanon and Israel to cease fire on the borders, warning against a possible escalation in southern Lebanon after the assassination of Hamas officials a day earlier in Beirut's southern suburbs.
"We are deeply concerned about any possibility of escalation that could have devastating consequences for people on both sides of the Blue Line," Ardell said, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
The Lebanon-Israel border witnessed increased tension since Oct. 8 after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas attacks on Israel the previous day, prompting Israel to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.
The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel killed 194 on the Lebanese side, including 139 Hezbollah members, a member of the civil defense, a Lebanese army soldier, one member of the Amal Movement and one from the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party, 16 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and 35 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources. ■
