The militant group Hezbollah vowed to retaliate to two Israeli airstrikes that occurred on Wednesday in Lebanon. According to Lebanese state media, the civilian death toll has risen to 10.
BEIRUT, LEBANON - OCTOBER 23: Hezbollah supporters in military clothes in formation within the area where the coffin will be honored moments before the beginning of the funeral of a Hezbollah militant killed by IDF while clashing yesterday in southern Lebanon yesterday, through the streets of Dahieh district on October 23, 2023 in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese Hezbollah announced the death of ten militants in the past 24 hours, bringing to 25 the number killed in its ranks since the large-scale Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. Accentuating the fear of a general conflagration on the Lebanese-Israeli front. (Photo by Manu Brabo/Getty Images)
It is the deadliest single day in more than four months of cross-border skirmishes. The airstrikes, which took place in the city of Nabatiyeh and a village in southern Lebanon, happened hours after a rocket attack originating in Lebanon resulted in the death of an Israeli soldier. More airstrikes took place on Thursday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the acts in a statement.
"At a time where we are insisting on calm and call all sides to not escalate, we find the Israeli enemy extending its aggression," read a statement from his office.
An Israeli military spokesperson said strikes targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and launch posts were carried out in strikes near Labbouneh, Wadi Slouqi, Majdal Selm and Houla, all border towns.
"Don't Try Us"
In a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spokesperson Avi Hyman said the Israeli army would continue to respond to Hezbollah's attacks.
"Our message to Hezbollah has and always will be: Don't try us."
The United Nations peacekeeping force deployed along the border, known as UNIFIL, voiced trepidation over the latest deadly exchange and urged restraint from both parties involved.
"Attacks targeting civilians are violations of international law and constitute war crimes," UNIFIL's spokesman Andrea Tenenti said in a statement. "The devastation, loss of life, and injuries witnessed are deeply concerning."
The airstrike in Nabatiyeh killed seven members of a single family when it knocked down part of a building, according to the National News Agency state-run news service in Lebanon.
A woman and two children were killed in the village of Souaneh. The Lebanese civilian death toll included six women and three children while three Hezbollah fighters were also killed.
A Lebanese security official reported that among the three Hezbollah fighters reported killed in the airstrikes was Ali Dibs, who escaped an Israeli drone strike a week before.
On Wednesday, a rocket attack from Lebanon struck the town of Safed in northern Israel killing a female Israeli soldier and wounding eight others. All were soldiers in the IDF.
While Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for the attack on Safed, the militant group did say they attacked three Israeli outposts along the border.
On Thursday senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Nabil Kaouk they were "prepared for the possibility of expanding the war" and would meet "escalation with escalation, displacement with displacement, and destruction with destruction."
