Mumbai: Israel fired barrages of artillery into southern Lebanon on Sunday after Hezbollah targeted three Israeli military positions in the disputed Shebaa Farms with missiles.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, said its actions were “in solidarity” with Palestinian people. The Shebaa Farms are a strip of land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
There were no reports of casualties right away. The cross-border shooting occurred a day after Palestinian gunmen launched an unexpected attack on Israeli communities, killing at least 250 Israelis and 230 Gazans in Israel’s response airstrikes.
An effective armed group supported by Iran, Hezbollah, claimed responsibility for firing artillery and guided rockets at three Shebaa Farms checkpoints “in solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
The Israeli military claimed to have launched artillery into a region of Lebanon where mortars were being fired across the border on Sunday. “IDF (Israel Defense Forces) artillery is currently striking the area in Lebanon from where a shooting was carried out,” it said.
A Hezbollah position was reportedly hit by an Israeli drone near the Shebaa neighborhood of Har Dov, according to the Israeli military.
Since 1967, Israel has controlled the Shebaa Farms, a 15 square mile (39 square km) area of land. The Shebaa Farms are said to be Lebanese by both Syria and Lebanon.
Requests for a response from the UN peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon were not immediately answered. It announced on Saturday that in response to events in Israel and Gaza, including its efforts to stop rocket launches, it has increased its presence in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon, said Saturday it was in “direct contact” with leaders of Palestinian “resistance” groups and that it saw Palestinian attacks on Israel as a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalization with Israel”.
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