According to three sources in Lebanon, Israeli shelling on Friday hit a Lebanese army observation station near the border after the Israeli military issued a warning about a possible armed infiltration and said it was responding with artillery fire.

Israel later denied that any incursion had taken place, and locals of a village close to the border who had been advised to barricade themselves inside and lock their doors and windows were told they could once more venture outside.

The alert was issued in Hanita, 500 metres (yards) from the tense border and opposite Aalma El-Chaeb.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed, heavily armed Hezbollah group later said it had carried out attacks on a number of border areas as a response to attacks Israel carried out earlier in the day on south Lebanese towns.

The military statement said there had been an explosion at the adjacent border fence, which was lightly damaged.

Lebanese state media reported that shells struck near Alma Al-Shaab and Dhayra, the sites of repeated clashes in the past week, the deadliest at the border since Hezbollah and Israel fought a brutal month-long war in 2006.