BEIRUT: Tensions flared on Lebanon’s southern border on Thursday, with both Hezbollah and the Israeli army launching strikes on houses and military targets.

Israeli artillery shelled Lebanese border villages, targeting houses and industrial facilities in Yaroun, Odaisseh, Aita Al-Shaab and Marwahin.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Channel said that missiles were launched at houses sheltering Israeli soldiers in the Metula settlement.

A 36-year-old member of the Amal Movement, Mohammed Ali Moussa Komayha from Kfarsir village, was killed on Wednesday night in an Israeli raid on a house in Qantara, Marjayoun.

Komayha was the first Lebanese casualty since the start of Ramadan.

At least 12 members of the Amal Movement have been killed in the conflict.

Israeli shelling also struck Dhahira village.

An Israeli army spokesperson said that the raid targeted a Hezbollah military building in the village.

However, civil defense teams took several civilians to hospitals in Tyre after they complained of breathing difficulties following the attack.

Correspondents reported that the missiles in Israeli strikes were now causing “skin rashes, shortness of breath and suffocation due to air pollution during and after the bombing in areas surrounding the target.”

The Israeli army organized a tour for Israeli journalists to the settlements of Metula and Kiryat Shmona on the other side of the border.

Photos of damaged buildings and burnt-out cars spread on Thursday, while Lebanese media personnel were unable to reach the Lebanese border area due to the Israeli bombardment.

In October 2023, Reuters photojournalist Issam Abdallah was killed, and six other journalists were seriously injured while covering the events in the border area.

Also on Thursday, the Israeli army announced “the deployment of a new military brigade on the Lebanese-Syrian border, based on an assessment of the situation and as part of the operational response to the situation on the border.”

According to Israeli media, the Mountains Brigade is part of the 210th division, with Col. Liron Appleman named as its commander.

The brigade specializes in combat in difficult terrain and mountainous areas, and will be tasked with protecting the Mount Hermon and the Shebaa Farms region, an area disputed between Lebanon and Syria with Israel.

Zion Ratzon, commanding officer of the 210th Division, said: “The establishment of the brigade will provide a high-quality operational response, and enable preparation for both defensive and offensive measures in a variety of scenarios that correspond to the terrain of the enemy area in the region, on both the Lebanese and Syrian fronts.”

Russian forces operating in Syria have set up a new observation post in the western plains of the western Quneitra area.

This comes “in the framework of reducing tensions in the region between groups affiliated with Hezbollah and Israel,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There are now 11 Russian observation posts in the area near the occupied Syrian Golan, according to the observatory.

On the political level, Hezbollah reiterated, in the words of Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a member of its Central Council, that it was closely monitoring the areas of confrontation and not the arenas of negotiations.