A woman and two children are reported to be among four people killed in a wave of Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

Security sources told the Reuters news agency the deaths came during Israeli strikes on a village.

Eleven people were wounded across southern areas and the level of damage was “vast”, the sources said.

Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters.

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Media reports in Lebanon said buildings were on fire after the attacks by Israel.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government said the strikes were launched after a woman died and eight other people were injured in a rocket attack fired from Lebanon on the Safed area in northern Israel, in which a military base was also hit.

Hezbollah is thought to be behind the initial rocket attack, but has not claimed responsibility.

The armed group did not announce any operations on Wednesday – but the head of its executive council warned the Israeli attacks “cannot pass without a response”.

Latest exchange between Israel and Lebanon is unlikely to change status quo

Dominic Waghorn

International affairs editor

@DominicWaghorn

The exchange of fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet – but the situation remains fundamentally the same.

Hezbollah’s Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war.

And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger war but has not decided to do so yet.

Ever since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, Hezbollah and Israel have been duelling over the border.

Hezbollah feels it must show solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza but not become drawn into a repeat of the devastating conflict of 2006.

It knows the people of Lebanon will not forgive them for any escalation that could wreck the country’s already decimated economy.

Read Dominic Waghorn’s full analysis here

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said: “A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets in the areas of Jabal el Braij, Houneh, Dunin, Aadchit and Souaneh.

“Among the targets struck were military compounds, operational control rooms, and terror infrastructure used by Hezbollah terrorists.

“Several targets belonged to the Redwan Forces.”

A view of the site where a rocket landed after it was fired from Lebanon, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the entrance to a hospital in Safed, northern Israel February 14, 2024. REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Image:
Officials said the northern Israeli city of Safed was targeted by rocket fire from inside Lebanon. Pic: Reuters

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Cross-border shelling has already killed more than 200 people in Lebanon, including more than 170 Hezbollah fighters, as well as around a dozen Israeli troops and some Israeli civilians.

Hezbollah and the Israeli military have been exchanging fire for more than four months.

It came after the armed group launched rockets across the disputed frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, which launched a deadly assault on Israel last October.

The exchange in fire has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the border areas of each country.