Five people were killed in Israeli strikes in the south, according to a Lebanese security source

Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have intensified cross-border exchanges that continued after the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

According to the Lebanese security source, “two Hezbollah fighters” were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the border town of Adaisseh. There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

A separate attack on the village of Khiam killed three people who were likely “Palestinian combatants,” the source said.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad later released a statement saying three of its fighters had been killed on the border with Israel.

AFP images showed a huge plume of smoke rising over Khiam following an attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its “artillery and warplanes struck over 20 Hezbollah terror targets” in southern Lebanon.

“Secondary explosions were detected during the attacks, indicating the presence of weapons caches in the area,” it said in a statement.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said its forces carried out at least 11 attacks on Israeli army positions in the north across the border, using drones and “guided missiles.”

A statement from the Iran-backed Lebanese group said six of those attacks were “in retaliation for enemy attacks on villages, homes and civilians” in southern Lebanon.

At least 395 people, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, have been killed in seven months of cross-border violence in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

Israel said 13 soldiers and nine civilians were killed on its side of the border.

Tens of thousands of people were displaced on both sides.

On Wednesday, a Lebanese official said the Israeli bombing of southern Lebanon had caused more than $1.5 billion in damages since the Israel-Hamas war began.

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