U.N. Peacekeeper, 2 Israeli Soldiers Killed Along Israel-Lebanon Border
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven more were injured during a Hezbollah missile attack against a Israeli military convoy near the Lebanon border Wednesday morning, according to Israeli officials. Retaliatory shelling from Israel reportedly killed a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper stationed in a village in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the initial attack, which came 10 days after an Israeli airstrike killed six Hezbollah members and an Iranian general in northwestern Syria.
The attack took place in Shebaa Farms, a Israel-controlled area along the Lebanese border that both Lebanon and Syria claim as their own.
Several hours after the attack, Israeli forces and Hezbollah were still exchanging fire. From the New York Times:
In the early afternoon, the two sides were still firing rockets or artillery at each other, the National News Agency of Lebanon reported. Witnesses in southern Lebanon said that Israeli ordnance had landed on their side of the border, extending from Shebaa to the south. The Lebanese news channel Al Mayadeen also reported that at least eight Israeli rockets had hit southern Lebanon.
The National News Agency said that a Spanish soldier serving in the United Nations peacekeeping force on the border was wounded when Israeli shells hit Abbasiyeh, a village in southern Lebanon. Al Manar, Hezbollah's news channel, reported that the Spanish soldier was killed.
Neither the U.N. nor the IDF have confirmed that the Spanish soldier was killed by Israeli fire.
"We are looking into the circumstances of the unfortunate death," Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, told the Los Angeles Times.
[Image via AP]