AT least two Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli air strike near Lebanon’s north-eastern city of Baalbek today.

The strikes were among the deepest inside Lebanon since Israel began its war on Gaza in October and took place day after Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had vowed to step up attacks on the militant Shi’ite group even after a ceasefire is reached with Hamas.

Hezbollah retaliated by firing 60 Katyusha rockets towards an Israeli army divisional command in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A Hezbollah official said the Israeli strikes had killed at least two members of the group, adding that one had hit a warehouse for food products that is part of Hezbollah’s Sajjad Project, which sells to people in its stronghold at below-market prices.

An off-duty Lebanese army soldier and his son were seriously injured in their home by one of the strikes, a government official said.

The air strikes near Baalbek occurred less than two hours after Hezbollah said that its fighters had shot down an Israeli Elbit Hermes 450 drone over its stronghold in a province in southern Lebanon.

Another Hezbollah missile fired towards the drone was intercepted by Israel and landed near a synagogue in a town close to Nazareth in northern Israel.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has pledged to halt its near-daily military actions against Israel if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

However, Mr Gallant said on Sunday that anyone who thought that a temporary ceasefire in Gaza would also apply to the northern front was “mistaken.”