Hezbollah official killed, 3 civilians injured in Israeli strike on Lebanese village

BEIRUT, April 14 (Xinhua) -- A Hezbollah official was killed and three civilians were injured on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a village in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Israeli raid targeted the main market in the southeast village of Khiam, killing a local Hezbollah official named Jihad Ali Abu Mahdi and wounding three civilians.

The sources noted that another raid destroyed a two-story house between the villages of Sareen and Nabi Chit in the vicinity of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.

The sources added that Israel carried out four air strikes on four towns and villages in southern and eastern Lebanon and fired 30 shells on nine towns and villages in the eastern, central, and western sectors of the border region in southern Lebanon.

Military sources said that they monitored the launching of about 25 surface-to-surface missiles and several drones from Lebanon into northern Israel, some of which were responded to by Israeli Iron Dome missiles.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.

The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have killed 419 people on the Lebanese side, including 266 Hezbollah members and 75 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources. ■