Israel launched deadly airstrikes in neighboring Lebanon on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, including four children, according to Lebanese sources, in retaliation for a rocket fire that killed an Israeli soldier, with the UN speaking of a “dangerous escalation”. while the concern that the region is heading for ignition is magnified.

Exchanges of fire have been daily on the border between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, since the day after the war that broke out on October 7 in the Gaza Strip, with the blows now deepening on the territory of each. country.

The representative of the UN Secretary General emphasized yesterday that the “escalation” of violence in the border area “is dangerous” and “must stop”, the US called for “the diplomatic route” to be preferred to reduce tensions, while France , through the mouth of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, judged that the situation is “serious”, however “not irreversible”.

The Israeli military said it struck “targets” linked to the “terrorist organization Hezbollah” in southern Lebanon. The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported four dead — a woman, her two children and a fighter of the Shiite armed movement — in one of them, in the village of Sawana.

Another strike, in the village of Anchit, resulted in the death of a Hezbollah fighter and the wounding of ten more people, according to ANI, which reported that extensive material damage was reported. The Shiite movement later confirmed the death of its fighter.

An AFP source in the Lebanese security forces said last night that three more civilians, including two women, were killed in an Israeli strike against a building in the city of Nabatia. ANI spoke of a ‘drone’ strike.

However, the Reuters news agency reported that the director of a clinic and three of his sources in the Lebanese security forces spoke of two children, three women and a man who were killed in this specific strike.

The raids, in communities 10 to 25 kilometers from the border, were in retaliation for a rocket fired from Lebanon at a military base in northern Israel, killing a female soldier and injuring seven others.

Initially, Israel’s first aid service said there were seven injured. An AFP photographer saw doctors and soldiers airlift an injured person from Safed hospital to another destination by military helicopter.

As of last night, Hezbollah had not claimed responsibility for the launch.

The Chief of the General Staff of Israel, Herchi Halevi, during his visit to the northern part of the country, declared the day before Wednesday that “the upcoming campaign will be a very strong attack”, according to a press release of his services.

On the part of Hezbollah’s senior official, Hashem Safiaddin, warned that “the attack (…) will not go unanswered”.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stressed on Tuesday that there will be no ceasefire until the war in the Gaza Strip ends and that his movement’s forces will retaliate against any Israeli attack.

In the past four-plus months of hostilities, at least 248 people, mostly fighters from Hezbollah and other allied factions, but also at least 33 civilians, have been killed in southern Lebanon, according to an AFP tally. In northern Israel, 16 people have been killed, ten members of the armed forces and six civilians, according to the army.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.