Israel\u2019s military claims it hit a Hezbollah weapons warehouse but Lebanese Health Ministry says residence attacked
\n Lebanon
\nAn Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon has killed at least 10 people, Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Health has said, as the Israeli military reported hitting a Hezbollah weapons storage facility.
\nThe death toll from the strike in the Nabatieh area included \u201ca woman and her two children\u201d and left five other people wounded, two critically, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday, adding that a residential building was hit.
\nIsrael\u2019s military claimed on its Telegram channel that the air force had struck a weapons warehouse of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah overnight \u201cin the area of Nabatieh\u201d, located about 12km (seven miles) from the nearest point to the Israeli border.
\nEarlier, the military posted on social media that its fighter jets attacked \u201cmilitary buildings\u201d in the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Aita al-Shaab, more than 50km (31 miles) south of Nabatieh city.
\nReporting from Nabatieh, Al Jazeera\u2019s Ali Hashem said a family of six Syrians and other employees were living on the residential floor of a metal factory that was hit.
\nThe lower floor was storage area, with the factory\u2019s warehouse across from this building.
\nHussein Tahmaz, the factory owner, said claims that this was a Hezbollah weapons depot were false.
\n\u201cWe are a well-known family in the area. We have no political affiliation and are not aligned to any political party. We are concerned only with our business and livelihood,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.
\nHezbollah said it launched rocket and drone attacks in retaliation.
\nThe Israeli military said there were no casualties from the attack targeting the settlement of Ayelet HaShahar as some of the 55 rockets launched fell in open areas.
\nThe strike is among the deadliest in Lebanon since Hezbollah started trading near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of its ally Hamas and in solidarity with the Palestinian people since the October 7 attack on southern Israel and Israel\u2019s subsequent war on Gaza.
\nAccording to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon exchanged at least 8,533 attacks across the border from October 7 to July 31.
\nIsrael conducted about 82 percent of these attacks, totalling 7,033 incidents, killing at least 601 people in Lebanon.
\nHezbollah and other armed groups were responsible for 1,500 attacks that killed at least 23 Israelis.
\nTensions have soared after a deadly rocket attack in July killed at least 12 people \u2013 many of them children, in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel blamed on Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied it was responsible for the attack.
\nIsrael then killed Fuad Shukr, a top Hezbollah commander, in a missile attack in the suburbs of Beirut.
\nHezbollah has promised to retaliate, as has Iran, for the killing in Tehran of Hamas\u2019s political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
\nThe assassinations by Israel and threats of retaliation have prompted fears of a major regional escalation.
\nSince Israel and Hezbollah last went to war in 2006, the Iran-aligned armed group has increased its military strength, according to analysts.
\nOn Friday, Hezbollah released a video appearing to show its fighters transporting large missiles through tunnels at an underground facility in what appeared to be Lebanon.
\nRiad Kahwaji, the head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, a security consultancy, said it was \u201cthe most explicit video Hezbollah has ever released showing the size of its tunnels\u201d and weapons arsenal. Hezbollah likely released the video to \u201cdeter\u201d Israel from launching a major operation against it in Lebanon, he said.
\nHezbollah has repeatedly said that only a Gaza ceasefire deal will stop its attacks on Israeli forces in northern Israel.
\nIsrael\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is \u201cprepared both defensively and offensively\u201d and \u201cdetermined\u201d to defend itself against both Hezbollah and Iran.
\nBut pressure has been mounting on Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal in Gaza, which would likely avert a wider war involving Lebanon and Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel\u2019s military claims it hit a Hezbollah weapons warehouse but Lebanese Health Ministry says residence attacked Lebanon An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon has killed at least 10 people, Lebanon\u2019s Ministry of Health has said, as the Israeli military reported hitting a Hezbollah weapons storage facility. The death toll from the strike in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-425555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n