At least 130 Palestinians were martyred and 263 wounded in the past 48 hours of Israel’s offensive on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said on Saturday.
Israel has resumed bombing and ground operations in the Gaza Strip as it presses Hamas to free remaining Israeli hostages.
In a related development, Israeli artillery fire and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon on Saturday after Israel said it had intercepted rockets fired from across the border, threatening a shaky truce that ended a year long war between Israel and Hezbollah.**
That conflict marked the deadliest spillover of the Gaza war, rumbling across the border for months before escalating into a blistering Israeli offensive that wiped out Hezbollah’s top commanders, many of its fighters and much of its arsenal.
The Israeli military said earlier it intercepted three rockets launched from a Lebanese district approximately 6 km (4 miles) north of the border, the first cross-border launch since a US-brokered ceasefire in November ended the fighting.
Israel’s Army Radio said the military was returning artillery fire. Lebanon’s state news agency said Israeli artillery hit two towns in southern Lebanon and airstrikes hit three other towns closer to the border.
Israel did not say who was responsible for the cross-border launches. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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