Two Hezbollah operatives were killed in an Israel Defense Forces drone strike in southern Lebanon on Monday morning, as the region braced for a fierce Israeli response to a rocket attack by the terror group over the weekend that killed 12 children.
Lebanese rescue services said two people were killed and three were wounded, including a child, in the attack between the southern Lebanon towns of Mays al-Jabal and Shaqra.
According to Lebanese media, the strike targeted a car and a motorcycle.
The IDF did not immediately issue a statement on the reports.
Following the attack, Hezbollah announced the deaths of two members killed “on the road to Jerusalem,” its term for operatives slain in Israeli strikes.
They were named as Abbas Hijazi, from Majdel Selm, and Abbas Salami, from Khirbet Selm.
Their deaths brought the terror group’s toll since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip to at least 383.
They were the first operatives killed in an IDF strike since Saturday, when four members of the terror group’s elite Radwan force were killed. After that, Hezbollah carried out the rocket attack on the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 children and teens.
Hezbollah has denied its involvement in the attack, but Israel and the United States have blamed on the Lebanese terror group. The IDF has also provided evidence tying Hezbollah to the attack.
Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon early Sunday and reportedly shelled sites there just after midnight Monday.
On Sunday night, Israeli ministers authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense chief to decide on the “manner and timing” of the response.
According to reports in Hebrew-language media on Monday, the potential responses were not shown to ministers, fearing they would be leaked.
Both sides have appeared to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to all-out war that potentially drags in other powers including the United States and Iran, but Saturday’s attack threatened to tip the standoff into a more dangerous phase.
Meanwhile, a barrage of rockets was fired Monday from Lebanon at the Gomeh Junction area, just south of Kiryat Shmona, the IDF said.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack, claiming to have targeted an Israeli military position in response to the deadly strike near Shaqra.
There were no reports of injuries.
Earlier on Monday, the IDF said a drone that crossed into the Western Galilee from Lebanon was intercepted by air defenses.
The interception triggered predawn rocket sirens in the towns of Yaara and Adamit due to fears of falling shrapnel, according to the IDF.
Late Sunday, Lebanese media reports Israeli airstrikes near the southern Lebanon towns of Houla and Markaba.
And on Sunday morning, the IDF said fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon the previous night, following the Majdal Shams attack.
The targets included weapon depots and other infrastructure in Shabriha and Burj el-Shemali near Tyre; the Beqaa Valley; and southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila, Rab al-Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa, according to the military.
None of those strikes appeared to be Israel’s response to the deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams, which is expected to be more significant.
Hezbollah terrorists have been firing rockets into northern Israel since October 8, drawing Israeli reprisal attacks and threatening to widen the conflict between Israel and Hamas beyond Gaza’s borders.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 24 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 383 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.