BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army said it returned Israeli fire for the first time Thursday in nearly a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, after a second soldier was killed by Israeli fire in a day.
“A soldier was killed after the Israeli enemy targeted an army post in the Bint Jbeil area — in the south, and the personnel at the post responded to the sources of fire,” the army said in a statement.
A military official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP this was the first response to Israeli fire since last October because the post had been “directly” hit.
It was the third such killing of a Lebanese soldier since the start of the escalation between the Iran-backed group and Israel on September 23.
Earlier Thursday, the army had said “a soldier was killed and another was wounded as a result of an aggression by the Israeli enemy during an evacuation and rescue operation with the Lebanese Red Cross in Taybeh village.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said four of its volunteers were wounded.
Hezbollah earlier said it fought off three bids by the Israeli army to infiltrate Lebanese territory, including one not far from Taybeh.
The Iran-backed militant group said it “repelled with artillery fire an attempt by enemy Israeli forces to advance at Fatima’s Gate” — a point on the cement and barbed wire wall running along the border.
Hezbollah also said it set off “four explosive devices” against Israeli ground forces attempting to “infiltrate” near the towns of Maroun Al-Ras and Yaroun.
It said it fired a barrage of rockets including at the Israeli city of Tiberias and a base for military industries in the Acre area, in response to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanese “towns, villages and civilians.”
On Monday, a Lebanese soldier was killed in an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle at a checkpoint in the Wazzani area.