Israel battled Hezbollah in south Lebanon as the air force expanded its bombardment of the country, with the Iran-backed group reporting “point-blank” fighting and Israel announcing the capture of a fighter.
Israel’s recent strikes have increasingly focused on areas beyond Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds in the south and east, with the Lebanese health ministry reporting deadly strikes on a Shiite Muslim village in a mostly Christian mountain area and another in the north.
Israeli warplanes also hit a 100-year-old mosque in the village of Kfar Tibnit near the border on Sunday, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.
“It was a significant place because families used to gather in the square right next to it (the mosque) on special occasions,” Mayor Fuad Yassin told AFP.
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AFPTV footage from the northern Deir Billa area showed rescuers and villagers digging through debris left by a strike with their bare hands.
The Israeli military said its 36th division continued “targeted and limited operational activity” against Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The air force hit “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities” among other militant targets, and on the ground, soldiers “eliminated dozens” of fighters, it said.
According to the NNA, Israeli forces have “escalated their attacks” on southern Lebanon, with “successive air strikes from midnight until morning” pounding several border villages.
Hezbollah said it clashed several times with Israeli troops who tried to “infiltrate” border villages.
It later said it shelled Israeli soldiers gathered in the village of Maroun al-Ras, and that in Blida village, its forces engaged Israeli soldiers “with machine guns at point-blank range”.
It also said it launched a salvo of rockets at a “base in southern Haifa”. Hezbollah has repeatedly fired on targets in the area of Haifa, a major city on Israel’s north coast.
The Israeli military said about 115 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon.
A Hezbollah fighter was captured emerging from a tunnel in south Lebanon on Sunday, Israel’s military said, the first such announcement since the start of the ground offensive.
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