BEIRUT, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Hezbollah claimed on Sunday morning that it had struck two Israeli settlements with batches of Katyusha and Falaq rockets.
In separate statements, the Shiite group said its fighters launched two attacks on the Kiryat Shmona settlement in northern Israel and another attack on the Shamir settlement on the western slopes of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, with barrages of rockets.
The shelling came in response to the Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese villages and civilian homes, especially the Saturday strike targeting Lebanese Civil Defense personnel operating in south Lebanon's Wadi Froun area, the group noted.
Meanwhile, Lebanese military sources, who spoke anonymously, said five batches of about 100 surface-to-surface rockets were reportedly launched from southern Lebanon to northern Israel at dawn and on Sunday morning, with some of them intercepted by Israeli Iron Dome missiles and many exploding in the airspace of southeastern Lebanon.
They continued that in response, Israeli drones and warplanes launched six raids on four villages and towns in the eastern and central sectors of the border area in southern Lebanon.
Three members of the Lebanese Civil Defense were killed and two others wounded in an Israeli drone attack on Saturday while they were extinguishing a fire caused by a previous Israeli raid on Wadi Froun, according to Lebanese medical and military sources.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. ■
