BEIRUT, September 23. /TASS/. Three religious figures with ties to the Lebanon-based Shiite party Hezbollah have been killed in Israeli air strikes on residential areas in the country’s south, Al Hadath reported, citing sources.

According to the TV channel, two influential clerics, Abdul Moneim Mahna and Amin Saad, were killed. Saad died during the shelling attack on the town of Bint Jbeil in south Lebanon. Another senior cleric killed, Ali Aburia, was well-known in the Beqaa Region.

Earlier, Lebanese media outlets reported continued intensive shelling attacks by Israeli aviation on a number of districts in Lebanon’s south. The press service of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that Israel had delivered strikes on 300 Hezbollah facilities in Lebanon. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari urged residents in Lebanon’s southern districts to stay away from purported Hezbollah facilities. According to the IDF, the movement is concealing its weapons, including projectiles, in residential areas.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.