Two killed in new Israeli airstrikes on eastern Lebanon

Fresh Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon on Tuesday killed two people, Lebanese official media said, after the deepest raid since cross-border hostilities erupted between Israel and Hezbollah last October.

The Israeli army said it had struck Hezbollah targets "deep inside Lebanese territory" near the town of Zboud, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the Israeli frontier.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said "an Israeli strike targeted the Wadi Faara region", a similar location to the one reported by Israel.

Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire with Hezbollah following the outbreak of Israel's indiscriminate war on Gaza in October.

Hezbollah says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas, while Israel has also targeted Hezbollah and Hamas officials in Lebanon, including with strikes deep into Lebanon.

An AFP correspondent said after the raid around Wadi Faara the army and Hezbollah had blocked access to the area.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the strikes targeted an uninhabited area where Hezbollah has positions.

The NNA later reported that a separate "Israeli strike" near Iaat, close to the eastern city of Baalbek, killed two people and wounded another.

In recent days, Israeli strikes have targeted the Bekaa valley, a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanese territory, where Baalbek and Iaat are located.

An AFP correspondent saw a building belonging to Hezbollah in flames and two people being taken away on stretchers, with a number of ambulances rushing to the scene.

Hezbollah later said one of its fighters was "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire, without specifying where or when they died.

Hezbollah strikes

Hezbollah in separate statements claimed a string of attacks on Israeli targets Tuesday, including one with guided missiles it said targeted the Meron air control base in northern Israel.

It also said it fired "more than 50 Katyusha rockets" towards a barracks in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Since the cross-border hostilities began, at least 330 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but including at least 57 civilians, according to an AFP count.

At least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in northern Israel, according to the military.

The hostilities have raised fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which last went to war in 2006.