Tel Aviv, 25 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) – The Iran-backed Hezbollah militia and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) traded fire across the Lebanese border once more on Monday, both sides reported.

Hezbollah said it had fired from southern Lebanon on Israeli units in Misgav in northern Israel and Beit Hillel on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The IDF reported that Israeli combat jets had struck Hezbollah bases and infrastructure in southern Lebanon overnight and in the early hours of Monday morning.

Israeli tanks had then fired on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon later in the day. The report said that air raid sirens had sounded in Rosh Hanikra on the Mediterranean coast during the afternoon.

No information on casualties was provided by either side.

Hezbollah and the IDF have repeatedly traded fire across the Lebanese border since the October 7 attacks mounted by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Both sides have suffered deaths and injuries in the worst escalation in the region since the 2006 Lebanon War.

Concerns are rising of a wider regional conflict drawing in Hezbollah and its Iranian backers.

Photo: MIA archive