Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed at least 10 people, as the Israeli military announced it had hit a Hezbollah weapons storage center.
The strike in the Nabatieh area included the death toll of “a woman and her two children” and five wounded, two seriously, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday when a residential building was hit.
Israel’s military said on its Telegram channel that the air force had overnight struck a weapons depot of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah in the “Nabatih area,” located about 12 km (seven miles) from the point near the Israeli border.
Earlier, the army posted on social media that its warplanes struck “military buildings” in the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab, 50km (31 miles) south of Nabatieh.
Reported from Nabatieh, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said a family of six Syrians and other employees living on the residential floor of a metal factory were attacked.
Across from this building is the warehouse of the factory, the lower floor storage area.
Factory owner Hussain Tahmaz said claims it was a Hezbollah weapons depot were false.
“We are a famous family in the area. We have no political affiliation and are not affiliated with any political party. We are only concerned about our business and livelihood,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hezbollah said it retaliated with rocket and drone strikes.
Israel’s military said no casualties were reported as some of the 55 rockets hit the settlement of Ayelet Hashahhar, some of which landed in open areas.
It was one of the deadliest strikes in Lebanon since Hezbollah began trading daily gunfire with Israeli forces in support of and in solidarity with the Palestinian people after the October 7 attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon exchanged at least 8,533 attacks along the border between October 7 and July 31.
Israel carried out 82 percent of these attacks, totaling 7,033 incidents, killing at least 601 people in Lebanon.
Hezbollah and other armed groups claimed responsibility for 1,500 attacks that killed at least 23 Israelis.
Tensions have risen since a deadly rocket attack in July killed at least 12 people – many of them children – in the village of Druze in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.
Israel has killed Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in a missile strike on the outskirts of Beirut.
Hezbollah has vowed an Iran-like response to the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Israel’s assassinations and threats of retaliation have fueled fears of a major territorial expansion.
Since Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006, the Iran-aligned armed group has increased its military strength, according to analysts.
On Friday, Hezbollah released a video showing its fighters transporting large missiles through tunnels at an underground facility in Lebanon.
Riyad Kahwaji, director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, a security consultancy, said it was “the most revealing video Hezbollah has ever released showing the extent of its tunnels” and arsenal. He said Hezbollah may have released the video to prevent it from launching a major operation against Israel in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has repeatedly said that only a Gaza cease-fire agreement would stop attacks on Israeli forces in northern Israel.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “ready to defend and attack” and was “resolute” against Hezbollah and Iran.
But pressure is mounting on Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would avoid a wider war involving Lebanon and Iran.
