The Israel Defense Forces carried out strikes deep in Lebanon late Monday, saying fighter jets hit a pair of sites belonging to the Hezbollah terror group.
Hours after the strikes, on Tuesday morning, a barrage of some 70 rockets was launched from Lebanon at northern Israel, according to the IDF.
It marked one of the largest barrages fired by the terror group amid the ongoing war.
There were no reports of damage or injuries, with footage showing some of the projectiles being intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. Sirens had sounded several communities in the northern Golan Heights and the Galilee Panhandle.
According to the IDF, the airstrikes on Monday night in the area of northeastern Lebanon’s Baalbek targeted facilities belonging to Hezbollah’s “aerial unit.”
Baalbek, an area identified in the past as a Hezbollah stronghold, is nearly 100 kilometers from the Israeli border.
The IDF said the strikes were in response to the Lebanese terror group’s recent launching of explosives-laden drones toward the Golan Heights.
There have been no reports of injuries or damage in the recent explosive unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, the latest of which was carried out on Monday morning.
Two security sources and the Baalbek governor, Bashir Khader, told Reuters that at least one civilian was killed and several others were injured in the Israeli strikes.
One of the strikes hit the southern entrance to the city of Baalbek, at least two kilometers from Roman ruins, the security sources said. The three other strikes hit near the city of Taraya, 20 kilometers west of Baalbek, they added.
The IDF published footage showing one of the sites being hit.
Surveillance camera footage posted to social media also showed one of the strikes.
The IDF previously struck in Baalbek last month, after Hezbollah downed a military drone over Lebanon. At the time, it marked the deepest confirmed Israeli strikes in Lebanon in years.
Earlier Monday, the IDF said fighter jets struck buildings and infrastructure used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab and Naqoura.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.
On Sunday alone, Hezbollah fired some 80 rockets at northern Israel.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of ten IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 242 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 40 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Reuters contributed to this report.