AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Days after breaking a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel has also now resumed airstrikes on Lebanon. Lebanese officials say at least seven people have been killed, including a child. Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah militants. Last year, Israeli attacks killed the militant group's leader and caused widespread devastation in the south of the country until a ceasefire was agreed to in November. NPR's Lauren Frayer is covering this story from neighboring Syria and joins us now. Welcome to the program.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hi, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So, Lauren, what sparked this round of violence?
FRAYER: Well, it started yesterday when the Israeli military says it intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon. No one was injured. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group backed by Iran, which is also a political party in Lebanon - it denies firing those rockets. It says it respects the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. But Israel says it's retaliating against Hezbollah anyway. The Israeli military sent out videos of its fighter jets taking off to attack Lebanon, officers huddled around in a command center, black-and-white footage of what it says are strikes on Hezbollah's weapons and infrastructure.
Lebanese officials say civilians have been killed and that more than a dozen areas have been hit across the country's south but also in the Beqaa Valley, sort of Lebanon's bread basket to the east near Syria, where I am, and in the tourist city of Tyre on the Mediterranean coast. One mayor in the south sent NPR video of huge clouds of smoke billowing from his village. There are videos of buildings on fire elsewhere in Lebanon.
RASCOE: Are people in Lebanon now fearing that we'll see a full-scale resumption of the war?
FRAYER: Absolutely, and I think the coming hours and days may tell us whether that happens. Lebanon's national news agency says another Israeli airstrike hit this morning, apparently from a drone that fired on a car near the Israel-Lebanon border. My colleague Jawad Rizkallah, NPR's Lebanon producer, has been speaking with a lot of people in southern Lebanon by phone, including a municipal official in a Christian village that suffered damage from shelling last night. That man's name is Maroun Moubarak.
MAROUN MOUBARAK: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: And Mr. Moubarak here is saying that some of his neighbors had just repaired their homes from the last Israeli attacks late last year, and now they've been hit again. Church services in his village this Sunday, today, have been canceled. In a few areas, people are even fleeing north again in scenes reminiscent of last fall in Lebanon, when more than 4,000 people were killed by Israeli attacks, according to Lebanese health officials.
RASCOE: What else has Israel been saying about why it's carrying out these strikes?
FRAYER: As in Gaza, Israel says it's targeting Iran-backed militants who have fired at Israel across the border. And as in Gaza, Israel is able to intercept most attacks on its territory and inflict disproportionate damage on the other side. It's worth noting, this comes at a time of real tumult inside Israel. There have been big protests over the resumption of the war in Gaza and fears for the lives of the hostages still held there. There's also been unrest over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's firing of his intelligence chief.
And it's worth adding also, that this is the deadliest exchange across the Israel-Lebanon border in months, but it is not the first. A lower intensity conflict has continued in southern Lebanon, even during a supposed ceasefire. And a spokesperson for U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon tells NPR that that force has talied 680 cross-border attacks that violate that truce - the vast majority of them by Israel.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in Damascus. Thank you so much.
FRAYER: You're welcome.
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