Hezbollah Rockets Retaliate

Lebanon's Hezbollah group said it fired Katyusha rockets at Israel in retaliation for strikes, which state media said killed two people in the south of the country.

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked war in Gaza.

Hezbollah fighters fired a salvo of Katyusha rockets at Israel's north "in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on civilians, most recently in Tayr Harfa," the group said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the group also claimed a rocket salvo on an army base in northern Israel, later saying its fighters launched a second attack with "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at troops who were assessing the damage at the base.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) said a first responder from a rescue group affiliated with a Hezbollah-allied movement and a telecoms technician were killed "as a result of the Israeli aggression on Tayr Harfa".

The rescuer belonged to the Risala Scout association, affiliated to Shiite Amal movement, while the technician worked for Power Tec, which undertakes maintenance work for private mobile service provider Touch.

The technician and colleagues from Ogero telecom provider were carrying out "maintenance on the transmission poles", the NNA said, adding they had sought permission from the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, or UNIFIL.

The Risala Scout association, which operates in south Lebanon, said the rescuer was killed when his team went to a location that had come under Israeli bombardment.

"The second strike came quickly, and one of the young men was martyred," a source from the association said.

A source within Touch said the strike hit a team that had been doing maintenance work in Tayr Haifa.

At least 402 people have been killed in Lebanon in seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also including 79 civilians.