Israeli forces targeting the Hezbollah militant group bombarded villages in southern and eastern Lebanon on Saturday after attacks inside northern Israel, sources on both sides said.
Israel and Hezbollah have staged regular artillery strikes against each other since the October 7 Hamas attacks set off the latest Gaza war.
A Hezbollah-affiliated medical organisation said 16 children aged between four and 14 were wounded in one Israeli air strike on the south Lebanon town of Siddikine.
The Israeli army said in a statement released Saturday that it had staged more than 40 air strikes over the past 72 hours against Hezbollah “military targets” in Lebanon.
The Islamic Health Committee said that the injured children from Siddikine had been taken to different hospitals in the region.
Lebanon’s state-run ANI news agency said seven people were injured in an Israeli strike on the town, inland from the coastal city of Tyre.
A source close to Hezbollah also reported that two Israeli air strikes on the militant group’s positions injured two people west of the city of Baalbek, in a remote area of eastern Lebanon far from the border.
ANI said “intensified” Israeli drone strikes since Friday night had left dead, injured and damage in several frontier zones. It did not give further details of the casualties.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck “significant Hezbollah assets” in south Lebanon in response to rocket fire aimed at northern Israel.
Hezbollah said it had shot down an Israeli Hermes 900 drone and Israel confirmed it had lost a drone in Lebanese airspace.
Nearly eight months of violence on the Israel-Lebanon border has left almost 450 people dead in Lebanon, mostly fighters but including at least 80 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, at least 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed, according to the army.
