Iran-backed Hezbollah claims five of its fighters – including son of an MP – were killed by Israeli airstrikes amid skirmishes at the Lebanese border

Five Hezbollah fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, have been killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanon border, the terrorist group has claimed.

Abbas Raad, son of the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc Mohammed Raad, was ‘martyred on the road to Jerusalem’, the group said in a statement – the phrase it has been using to announce the death of its members.

It issued separate statements with the identities and photographs of four other fighters who were also killed.

Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have traded escalating rocket fire along the Lebanese border following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

The Israeli military said in statements Wednesday evening that its fighter jets had struck a number of Hezbollah targets and sources of fire from Lebanon, including a Hezbollah ‘terrorist cell’ and infrastructure.

The strike came just hours after a four-day truce in Gaza was announced between Israel and Hamas.

Five Hezbollah fighters, including Abbas Muhammad Raad, have been killed by an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanon border, the Iran-backed group has claimed

Israel and Iran -backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas , have traded escalating rocket fire along the Lebanese border following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. Pictured: An Israeli artillery unit in Upper Galilee in northern Israel fires toward southern Lebanon on Wednesday

Pictured: People search for survivors following Israeli bombardment on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday

The fighters were killed by an Israeli strike on the village of Beit Yahoun in south Lebanon on Wednesday evening, Hezbollah has claimed.

A source close to the Raad family, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said Abbas ‘was killed with a number of other Hezbollah members’.

Since the Israel-Hamas war began last month, the frontier between Lebanon and Israel has seen escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between Israel and Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, but also Palestinian groups, raising fears of a broader conflagration.

Israel’s army said in statements Wednesday evening that it had struck a number of Hezbollah targets and sources of fire from Lebanon, including a Hezbollah ‘terrorist cell’ and infrastructure.

Since the cross-border exchanges began, 107 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, according to an AFP tally.

At least 75 are Hezbollah fighters but the toll also included at least 14 civilians, three of them journalists. Seven Hezbollah fighters have also been killed in Syria.

On the Israeli side, six soldiers and three civilians have been killed, according to authorities.

The strike came just hours after a four-day truce in Gaza was announced between Israel and Hamas. Pictured: Smoke from Gaza City fills the sky in the distance as an Israeli tank heads towards the Gaza strip on Wednesday

The strike came as Israel said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, stalling a breakthrough deal to pause the brutal and bloody seven-week-old war.

Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated the release of at least 50 Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas was on track, but would not happen until Friday at the earliest.

‘The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,’ he said in a statement. ‘The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.’

A second Israeli official said that a halt in fighting would also not take place on Thursday, as had been expected.

The complex and carefully choreographed deal saw Israel and Hamas militants agree a four-day truce, during which at least 50 hostages taken in the deadly October 7 attacks would be released.

For every 10 additional hostages released, there would be an extra day’s ‘pause’ in fighting, an Israeli government document said.

In turn, Israel would release at least 150 Palestinian women and children and allow more humanitarian aid into the coastal territory after weeks of bombardment, heavy fighting and a crippling siege.

It was not immediately clear what caused the delay, or whether it signalled a serious breakdown in implementation.

Israel said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, stalling a breakthrough deal to pause the brutal and bloody seven-week-old war. Pictured: Israeli soldiers patrol near the Gaza border on Wednesday

The deal had been expected to come into force from Thursday, despite fierce opposition from some in Israel’s hard-right government.

Israel’s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed the agreement with Hamas – brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt – but vowed it will be temporary and will not end the campaign to destroy Hamas.

‘We are winning and will continue to fight until absolute victory,’ he said on Wednesday, vowing to secure Israel from threats emanating from Gaza and Lebanon, home to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.

But tensions rose on Israel’s northern border early Thursday, after Hezbollah said five fighters, including the son of a senior lawmaker, had been killed.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who visited Beirut on Wednesday, warned in an interview that if the Hamas-Israel ceasefire begins but ‘does not continue… the conditions in the region will not remain the same as before the ceasefire and the scope of the war will expand’.

In Washington, the White House said President Joe Biden had spoken to Netanyahu on Wednesday and ’emphasised the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank.’

The White House has pressed Israel not to escalate clashes with Hezbollah, for fear of sparking a war that could drag in US and Iranian forces.

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel on Wednesday

Hardline interior minister Itamar Ben-Gvir described the deal as a ‘historic mistake’ that would embolden Hamas and risk the lives of Israeli troops.

An estimated 240 hostages were taken by Hamas and other Palestinian gunmen during bloody raids into Israel on October 7, which are also believed to have killed 1,200 people.

The shock attack prompted a blistering Israeli offensive into Hamas-run Gaza, which authorities there say has killed more than 14,000 people.

Most casualties on both sides are said to be civilians, although exact tolls could not be independently verified.

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