Two dead in Israel strikes on east Lebanon: security source

Israeli strikes on eastern Lebanon killed two people Tuesday, a security source said, in escalating tit-for-tat fire with the powerful Hezbollah group that has raised fears of spiralling violence.

Since the Gaza war erupted in October, Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire across their shared border, including several recent Israeli strikes on Hezbollah further north.

A Lebanese security source, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said two people were killed and 12 others wounded in the latest strikes.

The raids destroyed a building in Sarain, less than 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Baalbek, a key Hezbollah bastion near Lebanon's border with Syria, while another hit a building in the nearby town of Nabi Sheet, the source added.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah announced later that two of its fighters were "martyred on the road to Jerusalem", the phrase it uses to refer to members killed by Israeli fire, without specifying where or when they died.

The Israeli army said in a statement that "fighter jets struck two Hezbollah military command centres in the area of Baalbek, deep inside Lebanon", adding that Hezbollah used the sites to store "significant assets used to strengthen its weapons arsenal".

The army said the strikes were in retaliation for Hezbollah rocket "launches toward northern Israel" hours earlier.

Hezbollah had said it launched "more than a hundred Katyusha rockets" at two military bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights "in response to Israeli attacks... most recently near the city of Baalbek".

- 'Hezbollah's aerial forces' -

On Monday, another Israeli air strike near Baalbek -- around 100 kilometres from the border -- killed one person, a security source had said.

The Israeli military had said its jets had hit two sites belonging to "Hezbollah's aerial forces" in retaliation for strikes on the occupied Golan Heights over several days.

On February 26, Israeli strikes targeted Baalbek, killing two Hezbollah members, the first strikes on the Iran-backed group outside Lebanon's south since the Gaza war began.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hezbollah said its chief Hassan Nasrallah met with Khalil al-Hayya, a leading member of Hamas's political bureau.

They discussed ceasefire talks for the Gaza war, as well as attacks by Hamas's regional allies to support its war efforts, Hezbollah said in a statement.

Nasrallah is due to give a televised speech on Wednesday.

Hezbollah has repeatedly said it will only stop its attacks on Israel with a ceasefire in Gaza.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant recently said any truce in Gaza would not change Israel's goal of pushing Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon, by force or diplomacy.

Since hostilities began, at least 319 people, mainly Hezbollah fighters but also 54 civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally.

In Israel, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed in the cross-border hostilities.