DUBAI (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Tuesday it had launched a drone attack against Israeli military bases north of the city of Acre, in its deepest strike into Israeli territory since the Gaza war began.
The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of any of its facilities being hit by Hezbollah, but had said earlier on Tuesday that it intercepted two “aerial targets” off Israel’s northern coast.
Hezbollah said it acted in retaliation for an earlier Israeli attack killing one of its fighters. The group published what appeared to be a satellite photo, with the location of the strike symbolized by a flash with a red circle around it that sat halfway between Acre and Nahariyya to the north.
Israeli airstrikes killed two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, the military said earlier on Tuesday. Hezbollah later confirmed the death of one of its fighters, Hussein Azkoul, but provided no further details.
A separate Israeli strike overnight Monday to Tuesday killed a fighter in Hezbollah’s elite unit, Radwan Forces, the military said, though Hezbollah has not confirmed his death.
Since October, Israeli strikes have killed about 270 Hezbollah fighters as well as about 50 civilians. Hezbollah’s rocket and drone fire has killed about a dozen Israeli soldiers and half as many civilians. The shelling has displaced tens of thousands on each side.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir in Dubai and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean)
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