Israeli soldier and two Hezbollah fighters dead in escalating clashes

An Israeli soldier and two Hezbollah fighters were killed Monday in clashes, Israel's military and the Iran-backed Lebanese group said, the latest in a wave of cross-border violence.

Hezbollah has exchanged regular fire with the Israeli army in support of its ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

Hezbollah and Iran vowed to respond after an Israeli strike last month on Beirut killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, hours before an attack in Tehran, blamed on Israel, killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The Israeli military said Monday a member of its Bedouin Trackers Unit "fell during combat in northern Israel".

Hezbollah said two of its fighters were "martyred", after Lebanon's health ministry reported that an Israeli strike left two people dead in the border village of Hula.

Israel's military said air forces struck "Hezbollah terrorists" in the Hula area and "Hezbollah military structures" elsewhere in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah had said earlier it launched a "simultaneous air attack" with "explosive-laden drones" on two Israeli military positions -- the Yaara barracks near the border, and a base near the coastal town of Acre, around 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the frontier.

The Israeli military said that "multiple suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon".

Air defences "intercepted some of the targets, and others fell" in the Yaara area, it said.

 'Impunity'  

Hezbollah said that it responded to an Israeli "attack and assassination" in south Lebanon's Tyre area.

On Saturday, the Israeli military had said its aircraft "eliminated" a Hezbollah operative in the Tyre area, describing him as a "commander" in the group's elite Radwan force.

Early Monday, Hezbollah said its fighters targeted a group of Israeli soldiers "infiltrating" near the border and confronted them "with rocket weapons and artillery, forcing them to return".

Hezbollah also claimed attacks on other Israeli positions on Monday.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli shelling and raids on several southern areas and said "enemy warplanes" flying at low altitude broke the sound barrier twice over Beirut and its suburbs.

Imran Riza, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, said in a statement that "nearly 150,000 people continue to live in areas impacted daily by shelling and air strikes" in Lebanon.

"Millions more are reliving painful memories of the 2006 war, traumatised by worry over the risk of further escalation," he said, referring to the last major conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

According to the UN's International Organization for Migration, the violence since October has displaced more than 110,000 people in south Lebanon.

In Israel, authorities say some 100,000 people have been displaced in the country's north.

Riza added that "21 paramedics whose duties were to save others have been killed", saying "the seeming impunity with which such actions have been committed reveals a troubling disregard for international humanitarian law".

The cross-border violence has killed some 584 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but including at least 128 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.