According to official Lebanese media, four family members were murdered in an Israeli raid on a southern town on Sunday. Hezbollah then declared retaliatory attacks, marking the latest instance of cross-border violence since the Gaza conflict broke out.
After Palestinian organization Hamas’s historic October 7 onslaught on southern Israel ignited war in the Gaza Strip, Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have been exchanging cross-border gunfire on a regular basis.
In recent weeks, there has been an increase in fighting as the Israeli military has been hitting farther into Lebanese territory and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has escalated its strikes on northern Israel.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Sunday’s strike in Mais al-Jabal killed “four people from a single family”, reporting that the raid was carried out by Israeli aircraft.
It identified the dead as a man, a woman and their children aged 12 and 21, and said two other people were wounded.
A Lebanese security source acknowledged that “four civilians” were killed in the hit, but they asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The chief of the Mais al-Jabal municipality, Abdelmoneim Shukair, had earlier notified AFP of the deaths of three individuals, identifying them as a couple and their son.
The Israeli military made the announcement later on Sunday, saying that “this morning… fighter jets struck a military site in the area of Mais al-Jabal,” however it did not provide any further details.
