Hezbollah says Israel will 'pay price' after strike kills 3 children in Lebanon

Israel and the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the frontier since the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7. It has marked the worst violence across the border since Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.

An Israeli strike on a car in south Lebanon killed three children and their grandmother on Sunday, a Hezbollah lawmaker from the area said, calling the attack a "dangerous development" for which Israel would pay a price.

Lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the mother of the three children - girls aged between 8 and 14 - was wounded in the attack which struck the car as it drove between the villages of Aynata and Aitaroun near the Israeli border. "The enemy will pay the price for its crimes against civilians," Fadlallah told Reuters in a statement.

Asked about earlier reports from security sources in Lebanon that an Israeli strike had killed three people in a car near Aynata, an Israeli army spokesperson said the army would be a releasing a statement later on Sunday about a strike in Lebanon. Israel and the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the frontier since the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel went to war on Oct. 7. It has marked the worst violence across the border since Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.