Hezbollah guerrillas attacked an Israeli military post in the Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanese border on Friday, two days after Israeli troops shot dead a Lebanese shepherd.
Israeli warplanes and artillery retaliated, bombing targets on the Lebanese side in the area, witnesses said.
They said Hezbollah rockets hit the Rwaisat al-Alam post in the Farms. A Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut and the Israeli army in Jerusalem confirmed an attack was under way.
Israeli jets launched at least three strikes on targets near Kfar Shouba village on the Lebanese side of the border while Israeli artillery pounded the area.
There was no immediate word on casualties in the exchanges.
Hezbollah said in a statement the attack came in retaliation to Wednesday’s killing of the shepherd by Israeli soldiers in Rwaisat al-Alam. It said it hit the post.
Lebanon and U.N. peacekeepers said on Thursday Israeli troops killed the 17-year-old shepherd inside Lebanon. Israeli sources had told Reuters the man was armed and shot inside Israeli-held lines.
The leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, had vowed retaliation for the incident.
Disputed border
Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas have periodically attacked Israeli forces on the border, mainly in the occupied Shebaa Farms, since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000.
Lebanon says Shebaa is Lebanese. The United Nations and Israel say it is Syrian land. Hezbollah says its attacks are in retaliation to Israeli violations on Lebanese sovereignty, including almost daily flights by Israeli warplanes.
The U.N. Security Council authorized U.N. peacekeepers this week to remain another six months in south Lebanon. The force has been deployed in the area since an Israeli invasion in 1978.
