Israel,Hezbollah exchange heaviest strikes in months amid fears of escalation

(COMBO) In this combination of pictures created on Aug. 25, 2024, photos taken from a position in northern Israel show a Hezbollah UAV being intercepted by the Israeli air force over northern Israel on Aug. 25, 2024.

Israel launched air strikes into Lebanon on Sunday, saying it destroyed "thousands" of Hezbollah rocket launchers and thwarted a major attack, while the Lebanese group insisted it had been able to deliver a drone and rocket barrage of its own.

The result was perhaps the biggest exchange of fire in 10 months of a war that began with a Hamas attack launched from Gaza and has triggered both new violence on the Lebanon-Israel border and fears of a broader conflagration in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said around 100 of its fighter jets had struck more than 270 targets, "90 percent" of which "were short-range rockets aimed at northern Israel."

Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Lebanese armed group, denied that thousands of launchers had been destroyed or that Israel had thwarted a larger attack. It said its own operation "was completed and accomplished."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet the strikes were "not the final word" in the campaign against Hezbollah.

A soldier in the Israeli navy was killed in combat, and two more were wounded, the military said, with an official telling AFP that their boat may have been hit by one of their own side's air-defense interceptors.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces throughout the Gaza war, in what Hezbollah says is support for its Palestinian ally Hamas.

But fears of a wider regional conflagration soared after attacks in late July, blamed on Israel, killed Iran-aligned militant leaders,...