Israeli forces targeting the Hezbollah group bombarded villages in southern and eastern Lebanon on Saturday after attacks inside northern Israel, AFP quoted sources on both sides as saying.

A Hezbollah-affiliated medical organisation said 16 children aged between four and 14 were wounded in one Israeli air strike on the south Lebanon town of Siddikine.

The Israeli army said in a statement released on Saturday that it had staged more than 40 airstrikes over the past 72 hours against Hezbollah “military targets” in Lebanon.

The Islamic Health Committee said that the injured children from Siddikine had been taken to different hospitals in the region. Lebanon’s state-run ANI news agency said seven people were injured in an Israeli strike on the town, inland from the coastal city of Tyre.

A source close to Hezbollah also reported that two Israeli air strikes on the militant group’s positions injured two people west of the city of Baalbek, in a remote area of eastern Lebanon far from the border.