Israel strikes towns near Sidon, Nabatieh as tensions escalate

Israeli warplanes struck Tuesday southern towns deep inside Lebanon, including a town near Sidon, almost 30 kilometers from the nearest Israeli boundary.

The series of airstrikes came shortly after Hezbollah launched a salvo of rockets at the Israeli Meron air control base in retaliation for deadly Israeli strikes on east Lebanon.

The strikes targeted the outskirts of al-Baysarieh near Sidon, the town of Jebchit near Nabatieh, al-Hanniyeh, al-Mansouri, and Majdalzoun in the district of Tyre.

Hezbollah later targeted the al-Marj post, a group of soldiers on al-Tayhat hill and two posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms, while Israeli artillery and warplanes bombed Aita al-Shaab and the al-Raheb hill.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border had increased on Monday, after shot down an Israeli drone and Israel retaliated by striking a village near Baalbek for the first time and a car in the southern village of Majadel, killing two Hezbollah members and a Hezbollah field commander.

Hezbollah retaliated by firing 60 Katyusha rockets toward an Israeli army division command in Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and a salvo of rockets at the Meron air control base.