Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire across Lebanon border amid concern over Gaza war spillover

Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah group said on Saturday it had fired rockets at Israel and its arch-foe said it had struck a “terrorist cell” in retaliation, as top U.S. and EU diplomats visited the region to seek ways to halt spillover from the war.

Shortly after rocket sirens sounded across northern Israel, the Israeli military said that “approximately 40 launches from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified.”

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Hezbollah said it had hit a key Israeli observation post with 62 rockets as a “preliminary response” to the killing of Hamas’ deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday.

Tensions have been especially high since Arouri was killed by a drone in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hamas’ Lebanese ally Hezbollah, in an attack widely attributed to Israel.

The head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday Lebanon would be “exposed” to more Israeli operations if his group did not respond to the killing.

Israel’s military said it had responded to Saturday’s rocket attack with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strike on “the terrorist cell responsible for the launches toward the area of Metula.”

Israeli fighter jets and troops also struck a series of Hezbollah targets in the areas of Ayta ash Shab, Yaroun, and Ramyeh in southern Lebanon, it said, striking a launch post, military sites, and “terrorist infrastructure.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the European Union’s senior diplomat Josep Borrell began a new diplomatic push on Friday to stop the spillover from the three-month-old Gaza war into Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Red Sea…