Border clashes resume as Hezbollah targets soldiers, Israel shells south

Border skirmishes resumed Friday after a weeklong truce in Gaza brought a temporary halt to the daily exchanges of rockets, artillery shelling and airstrikes between Hezbollah and Israel in south Lebanon.

While Lebanon and Hezbollah weren't officially parties to the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a cautious calm prevailed over the border area in south Lebanon during Gaza's weeklong truce.

As war resumed in Gaza, Hezbollah targeted a group of soldiers near the Israeli post of Jal al-Alam and fired anti-tanks missiles towards the Manara settlement.

Israel bombed in response the al-Labbouneh, Hamoul and Rwaisat areas near Lebanon's Naqoura with artillery shells, and al-Qawzah forests with a guided missile.

The shelling followed the explosion of an Israeli interception missile over the town of al-Khiam, as the Israeli army said its air defenses had "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon".

The calm in the past week was interrupted by occasional Israeli violations and a constant buzz of Israeli surveillance drones.

On Friday, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in Dubai to attend a COP28 climate summit shadowed by the resumption of war in Gaza.

World leaders brought up the war while Iranian delegates walked out of the talks in protest over the presence of Israeli representatives and Palestinian climate change expert Hadeel Ikhmais asked "We're negotiating for what in the middle of a genocide?"

Since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen intensifying exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

The cross-border exchanges have killed 109 people in Lebanon, at least 77 of them Hezbollah fighters and 14 civilians. More than 55,000 people have fled their homes.

Six Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

Lebanese who had fled their border villages after the cross-border skirmishes began timidly to return, once the truce was announced last week.