Israeli army says Lebanon rocket fire kills soldier

Israel’s military said Friday rocket fire from Lebanon had killed one of its soldiers and wounded another near the border, where violence has flared during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The soldiers were hit during “operational activity” in the Shtula area in northern Israel, the army said in a statement.

The frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, raising fears of a broader conflict.

Hezbollah said two of its fighters had been killed by Israeli fire on Friday as it claimed several attacks on areas near the border in Israel.

The Israeli army said that after a report of sirens sounding near the border in Manara, several “launches were identified from Lebanon toward Israel.”

It added that “a number of mortar launches were identified from Lebanon toward Metula,” also near the border, and that “IDF (army) artillery struck the sources of fire.”

An Israeli fighter jet earlier on Friday “struck infrastructure and a military site belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon,” the army said.

Hezbollah says it is acting in support of Hamas.

Since hostilities began in October, more than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also more than a dozen civilians, three of them journalists, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, at least four civilians and eight soldiers have been killed, according to officials.