• The border area between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Iran-backed group Hezbollah and Israel

Beirut: Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah said Friday that Israeli fire killed seven of its fighters, without specifying where or when they died as border tensions persist during the Israel-Hamas war.

The group named the seven fighters in a statement stating they were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem,” the phrase Hezbollah uses to mourn members — now numbering 68 — killed since border clashes with Israel began last month.

The border area between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire, in particular between Iran-backed group Hezbollah and Israel, since the start of the Israel-Hamas war triggered by the October 7 attacks on Israel by Gaza-based Hamas.

Earlier Friday, Israel’s military said it struck an organization in Syria, which it did not name, saying the group was behind a drone crash into a school in southern Israel a day earlier.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Israeli strike targeted sites belonging to Hezbollah — which has fought alongside Damascus since at least 2013.

On Wednesday, Israeli air strikes killed three pro-Iran fighters as they hit sites belonging to Hezbollah near the Syrian capital Damascus, according to the Observatory with a network of sources inside Syria.

Israel has struck Syria several times in the past month.

At least 90 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes, according to an AFP tally, most of them Hezbollah combattants.

Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.

AFP