Israel strikes south and east Lebanon as Hezbollah seems to deescalate

Israeli drones targeted Thursday a region between Yater and Zebqine while artillery shelled the outskirts of Yater.

Drones had targeted earlier on Thursday two cars in east and south Lebanon, killing a Jamaa Islamiya commander in the village of Ghazzeh in Bekaa, and a Hezbollah fighter in Jbal el-Botm in the Tyre district, near Zebqine.

Israeli jets also raided the village of Ain el-Tineh in West Bekaa.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli army fired machine guns at the border town of al-Wazzani. Artillery had shelled overnight the southern border town of Aita al-Shaab.

Israeli strikes seemed to intensify Thursday, although Hezbollah attacks rather decreased. The group targeted Thursday surveillance equipment in the Hadb Yarine post and in Metula in north Israel.

On Wednesday Hezbollah carried out only one attack on north Israel in response to a strike that killed 3 Syrian children in Umm Toot.

During the past months of border clashes, Hezbollah had carried out around or more than 10 attacks per day, including with advanced weapons.

The group seems now to de-escalate as cease-fire talks resume in Cairo.

Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7 with the Hamas attack on southern Israel. The group says it would only stop its attacks when a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the tense Lebanon-Israel frontier have been displaced in the monthslong war.