Hezbollah says it attacks Israeli forces at Lebanon border

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it had fired on Israeli army positions at the Lebanese-Israeli border on Friday in an attack to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas resumed. An ally of Hamas, the Iran-backed Hezbollah traded fire with Israel for weeks across the border after the Hamas-Israel war erupted on Oct. 7 - hostilities which ceased a week ago when Hamas and Israel agreed a truce that expired on Friday.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it had fired on Israeli army positions at the Lebanese-Israeli border on Friday in an attack to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas resumed.

An ally of Hamas, the Iran-backed Hezbollah traded fire with Israel for weeks across the border after the Hamas-Israel war erupted on Oct. 7 - hostilities which ceased a week ago when Hamas and Israel agreed a truce that expired on Friday. In a brief statement, the heavily armed Hezbollah said its fighters had carried out Friday's attack using "appropriate weapons" against a gathering of Israeli troops. The attack was "in support of our steadfast Palestinian people ... and its valiant and honorable resistance", Hezbollah said.

The Israeli army earlier said it intercepted an "aerial target" that crossed from Lebanon into Israel, after sirens warning of possible incoming rockets went off in several towns in northern Israel and sent residents running for shelter. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV channel later reported Israeli shelling of several areas in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, part of an Iran-backed alliance including Hamas, mounted near daily rocket attacks on Israeli positions at the frontier while Israel waged air and artillery strikes in south Lebanon during the hostilities that began on Oct. 8. About 100 people in Lebanon have been killed during the hostilities, 80 of them Hezbollah fighters. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes on both sides of the border.

It has been the worst fighting since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. Senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah earlier said the group was vigiliant and ready after the Hamas-Israel truce ended.

"In Lebanon, we are concerned in facing this challenge, being vigilant, and always ready to confront any possibility and any danger that may arise in our country," he said. "No one thinks that Lebanon has been spared from this Zionist targeting or that what is happening in Gaza cannot affect the situation in Lebanon," he said.

Lebanon-based militants from Hamas and the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad have also mounted attacks from Lebanese territory. "Hezbollah has linked what happens at the border with what happens in Gaza," said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Lebanon's Annahar newspaper.

"All the while the war in Gaza continues Lebanon will remain threatened by the danger of a major escalation."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)