People gather near a destroyed warehouse which was attacked by Israeli airstrikes, on the Hezbollah stronghold town of Safri, near Baalbek town, east Lebanon, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A Lebanese security official and an official from the militant Hezbollah group say two Israeli airstrikes over northeastern Lebanon have killed at least two people and destroyed a warehouse. (AP Photo)

SAFRI, Lebanon (AP) — A pair of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday in northeastern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded 20, marking a continued escalation between Israel and Hezbollah over the war Israel is waging against Hamas militants in Gaza.

One of the airstrikes destroyed a warehouse that reportedly was used to store food.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes hit two Hezbollah sites and were in response to rocket attacks over northern Israel earlier in the day. Hezbollah said they struck several Israeli military positions, including two bases in northern Israel with a barrage of 100 Katyusha rockets on Tuesday.

The exchanges also followed Israeli strikes near the Lebanese city of Baalbek late on Monday night.

Initially, an official from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group told The Associated Press that one person was killed in the airstrikes in the town of Safri. A Lebanese security official later said at least two people were killed and 20 were wounded, nine of whom remain at a local hospital.

The official said it was unclear if the two killed were Hezbollah members or civilians. Both the security official and the Hezbollah figure spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Last month, at least two Hezbollah members were killed in airstrikes near Baalbek and another warehouse was destroyed. It had also stocked food that's is part of Hezbollah’s Sajjad Project, which sells food to people in the group's stronghold at prices lower than on the market.

Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah met with a top Hamas official, Khalil Hayeh, who was involved in negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza. Last week, Qatar and Egyptian-mediated efforts to broker a truce in Gaza before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan broke down.

Since the Gaza war erupted after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage, there have been near-daily exchanges along the Lebanon-Israel border and international mediators have scrambled to prevent an all-out war in tiny Lebanon.

In Israel's subsequent offensive into Gaza, at least 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run coastal enclave. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

In the strikes near Baalbek late Monday, one person was killed and six were wounded.

The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Israeli jets bombed two Hezbollah compounds in northeastern Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah launching attacks on the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said said the strikes near Baalbek targeted Hezbollah’s drone locations. The Iran-backed militant group had claimed on Monday attacking Israeli military units in northern Israel with explosive drones.

President Joe Biden's senior advisor Amos Hochstein had urged for a lasting cease-fire along the tense border when he visited Lebanon and Israel earlier this month.

Hezbollah has said that a cease-fire in Gaza would be the only way to restore calm along the Lebanon-Israel border, though Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last month that anyone who thinks a temporary cease-fire for Gaza will also apply to the northern front was “mistaken.”

Separately, Lebanon’s caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib appeared to underscore the link between peace in Gaza and the volatile Lebanon-Israel border and urged in comments Tuesday for a “full implementation” of the U.N. Security Council resolution that brought an end to a brutal monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

“Full peace with Israel would come after they have peace with the Palestinians,” said Bou Habib.

Since the war in Gaza started, more than 220 Hezbollah fighters and nearly 40 Lebanese civilians have been killed on Lebanon's side while in Israel, nine soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024