The Lebanese militant group Hizbullah said it launched a drone attack on northern Israel that injured two Israeli troops.
The violence came as fears of an all-out regional war mount following the killings last week of a senior Hizbullah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’s top political leader in Iran.
The Iranian-backed Hizbullah said in a statement it targeted a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in south Lebanon.
The attack did not appear to be part of a more intense retaliation expected in response to the killing of Hizbullah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut last week.
The Israeli military said fire services were working to put out a blaze sparked by the attack in Ayelet HaShahar in the upper Galilee.
Israel and Hizbullah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that had not escalated into full-on war.
Last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and Hizbullah commander Mr Shukur in Beirut raised tensions in the region.
Israel has been bracing for a retaliation from Iran and its allied militias.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday that Iran is not looking to escalate regional tensions but believes it needs to punish Israel to prevent further instability.
“Iran seeks to establish stability in the region, but this will only come with punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against the adventurism of the Zionist regime [Israel],” Nasser Kanaani said, adding that action from Tehran was inevitable.
He called on the United States to stop supporting Israel, saying the international community had failed in its duty to safeguard stability in the region and should support the “punishment of the aggressor”.
Tehran and Iran-aligned groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah have accused Israel of killing Mr Haniyeh on July 31st. Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility. – Agencies