Hezbollah official killed in Israeli raid on SE Lebanese village

BEIRUT — A Hezbollah official was killed and another member severely injured on Wednesday afternoon during an Israeli raid in southeastern Lebanon’s Mays al-Jabal village, Lebanese sources told Xinhua.

Military sources, who spoke anonymously, said an Israeli drone targeted a motorcycle with two air-to-ground missiles in Mays al-Jabal, killing a Hezbollah military cadre and wounding his companion.

They added that the civil defense crew is working to transfer the casualties to the government hospital.

Meanwhile, the Emergency Operations Center of Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry issued a statement and confirmed the incident and casualties.

Israeli airstrikes also targeted the municipality of Yater and the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Rachaya al Foukhar in the eastern sector of the border area in southern Lebanon, the official National News Agency reported.

Also on Wednesday, Hezbollah claimed in a series of statements that its fighters have targeted the Israeli sites of Ruwaisat Al-Qarn, Al-Alam, and Al-Raheb, as well as the Zebdine barracks in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

The exchange of fire took place as tensions mounted along the Lebanon-Israel border since Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel the previous day. Israel then retaliated by pounding southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah builds numerous weapons caches, tunnels, and bunkers, with heavy artillery.

XINHUA