Two IDF soldiers were killed and seven were injured in a multi-pronged attack carried out by Hezbollah from Lebanon on Wednesday.
IDF Spokesman Brig-Gen. Moti Almoz described two incidents that unfolded. In the first, an anti-tank missile fired from southern Lebanon struck an IDF vehicle traveling with other military vehicles, resulting in a number of injures among IDF soldiers. Almoz ruled out the possibility of a kidnapping.
The IDF said that two soldiers were killed and seven soldiers were lightly-to-moderately injured in the strike.
Following the anti-tank missile, mortar shells launched from Syria were fired at IDF positions on Har Dov and the Hermon Mountain. The army evacuated dozens of people from the Hermon Mountain. A home in the Israeli border town of Kafr Rajar was damaged by a mortar shell.
The IDF responded with combined artillery and air strikes on multiple targets in southern Lebanon. "We view Hezbollah as responsible," Almoz said. "This is not necessarily the end of the IDF's response," he warned.
"We are continuing to manage this incident from the northern command," he added. "The IDF Chief of Staff is holding an ongoing evaluation of incidents. We are in the midst of this incident."
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks in northern Israel along the Lebanon border, according to a statement reported by Reuters on Wednesday.
The Lebanese terror group said its "Quneitra Martyrs Brigade" carried out the attack.
The incident comes amid heightened tension in the North after an alleged Israeli strike against a Hezbollah convoy in Syria last week. The strike killed six Hezbollah operatives and six Iranians, including a senior Revolutionary Guards general. Both Iran and Hezbollah vowed revenge in the aftermath of the attack.
Two rockets were fired into the Golan Heights on Tuesday in an attack that a security source said was perpetrated by Hezbollah from Syria. The IDF responded to the attack with an air strike against Syrian artillery targets late on Tuesday night.