Jan 1 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on its Telegram account on Monday that four of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.
The statement gave no detail about how the four were killed but said they “were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem”.
Hezbollah initially said three were killed before updating the number to four later in the day.
Security sources said the first three were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.
Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza in early October.
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The Israeli military said on Monday it struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including “military sites” where Hezbollah was operating.
Israeli air strikes and shelling have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters and nearly two dozen civilians, including children, elderly and several journalists, according to Hezbollah and security sources.
(Reporting by Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo and Suleiman al Khalidi in Amman; editing by Jason Neely and Lisa Shumaker)
