Rocket fire from Lebanon killed an Israeli civilian on Tuesday, medics said, adding to tensions at the frontier as Lebanon braced for Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah after a deadly missile strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Tensions have spiked since Saturday when the rocket killed 12 children and teenagers at a football pitch in a Druze village. Israel accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah and vowed a harsh response. Hezbollah has denied involvement.
Later on Tuesday, the Israeli military said 15 projectiles had been fired across the Lebanese border within the past few hours, with impacts in several areas of the Upper Galilee region. No injuries were reported.
Israel’s air force had just hit a Hezbollah observation post and “terror infrastructure” in south Lebanon, it added.
As diplomats sought to contain the fallout, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe a fight was inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel, though he remained concerned about the potential for escalation.
Hezbollah and Israel, which last fought each other in a major war in 2006, have been trading fire since the eruption of the Gaza war in October, after Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets in what it says is solidarity with the Palestinians.
The hostilities have mostly been contained to the frontier region and both sides have previously indicated they do not seek a wider confrontation even as the conflict has prompted worry about the risk of a slide towards war.
In the latest exchanges of fire on Tuesday, the Israeli military said ten rockets had been fired from Lebanon and one hit Kibbutz Hagoshrim, causing one casualty. Israel’s ambulance service said the 30-year-old male died of shrapnel wounds.
Israel said it hit some ten Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon overnight and killed one Hezbollah fighter – attacks which appeared to be in keeping with the pattern of the last nine months. Hezbollah confirmed one of its fighters was killed.
Hezbollah, one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state groups, said its air defence unit had fired at Israeli warplanes that broke the sound barrier over Lebanon, forcing them to retreat. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said it was unfamiliar with any such incident.
The United States has been leading a diplomatic effort to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to Saturday’s attack, five people with knowledge of the drive told Reuters on Monday.
A Hezbollah official said the group had rejected calls from international envoys not to respond to the anticipated Israeli retaliation. It would respond to any attack, the official said in written comments.
