Israel renewed its bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs early Wednesday, with at least three strikes on what it said were targets linked to the Hezbollah movement.
Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from parts of the suburb. Israel has issued new evacuation orders for the area, which has been mostly cleared after days of heavy attacks.
Hezbollah announced that in the early hours of Wednesday, it confronted Israeli forces that attempted to infiltrate the southern Lebanese city of Odaisseh, and forced them to retreat.
In a Telegram post, Hezbollah said its forces clashed with Israeli soldiers, inflicting casualties and forcing them to retreat.
The statements came after Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for the assassinations of senior Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials.
Israel vowed a “painful response”, saying more than 180 missiles were launched from Iran, while the Israeli air force activated defense systems to intercept them.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iran had fired dozens of missiles at Israel, warning that if Israel retaliated, Tehran would respond “more devastatingly.” Iranian state agencies announced that three Israeli military facilities were targeted in the attack.
The developments come a day after Israel announced it had sent ground troops into southern Lebanon in what it called a “limited” operation against Hezbollah targets, Klix.ba writes.