Israel’s wars with Iran-backed groups continue with rockets killing 7 in Israel, IDF airstrikes in Syria

Tel Aviv, Israel — Rocket fire from Lebanon killed at least seven people in northern Israel on Thursday, including four foreign workers, in the deadliest such attacks since Israel’s invasion earlier this month. The attacks on two separate locations came as senior US diplomats were in the region to push for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to end the violent wars between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Middle East in recent months. the Biden administration. .

Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has launched rockets, drones and rockets into Israel on a daily basis and has drawn retaliatory strikes since Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 terror attack in the Gaza Strip, triggering the war there.

Hezbollah and Hamas are ideological allies and both have long been considered Iranian proxy groups – and designated as terrorist organizations by the US, Israel and many other countries.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said on Thursday it had carried out airstrikes on targets near Qusair, a western Syrian town near the border with Lebanon, where it said Hezbollah had recently started stockpiling weapons in an attempt to smuggle them into Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces have struck border crossings between Lebanon and Syria several times, claiming they served as arms smuggling routes.

Reports from Syrian news outlets say at least five people were killed in Thursday’s attacks.

The conflict along Israel’s northern border escalated last month when the IDF launched a wave of heavy airstrikes in Lebanon and killed the main leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahand most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces then pushed into Lebanon in early October. Since then, nearly two dozen Israeli forces have been killed in Lebanon, while Lebanese health authorities say airstrikes have killed about 2,000 people across the country.

The Metula Regional Council in northern Israel reported the first rocket attack on Thursday, which killed five people, without elaborating on the number or type of projectiles used.

The nationalities of the four workers killed in that attack were also not immediately known. Metula, Israel’s northernmost city, is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides and has suffered severe damage from rockets. The town’s residents were evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural laborers remain there.

The Refugee and Migrant Hotline, an organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them at risk by allowing them to work along the border without adequate protection. The agricultural areas along the border with Israel, where much of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission.

Shortly after the strike, Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said doctors had confirmed the deaths of a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman in a suburb of the northern city of Haifa. the city. They also treated two other people who suffered minor injuries and were hospitalized. The Israeli military said about 25 rockets crossed into Israel from Lebanon as part of that salvo, which hit an olive grove where people had gathered for the harvest.

to Hezbollah newly appointed top leader Sheikh Naim Qassemsaid in a video statement on Wednesday that the militant group will continue to fight Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms it deems acceptable. He said he has bounced back from a string of setbacks in recent months, including attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies which were widely blamed on Israel.

“Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.

Early Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate from several areas in southern Lebanon as airstrikes in various parts of the country killed eight people, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency. Israel warned people to evacuate large areas of the country, including major cities in the south and east.

More than 2,800 people have been killed and nearly 13,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began more than a year ago, and about 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the Lebanese government.

In Israel, missiles, rockets and drones fired by Hezbollah have killed at least 68 people, about half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis in towns and cities along the border have been evacuated from their homes for more than a year.

In the final months of the Biden administration, the US and other mediating nations have circulated new proposals to liquidate regional conflicts. Negotiations on both fronts have been deadlocked for months, and neither side has shown signs of backing down from their demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein both returned to Israel on Thursday for talks on a possible ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas. CIA Director Bill Burns was to visit Egypt to discuss these efforts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with McGurk and Hochstein, his office confirmed in a statement, saying the Israeli leader “thanked our American friends for their efforts” but “clarified that the main issue is not the documents regarding this or that agreement, but only Israel’s determination to implement the agreement and to counter any threat to its security in Lebanon.”

A proposal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah calls for a two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the country’s southern border, they two officials familiar with the discussions told The Associated. Press Wednesday.

But Israel is unlikely to trust UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops – both of which it accuses of failing to prevent Hezbollah from taking root in the area over the past decade – to keep Hezbollah out. buffer it has now re-established in southern Lebanon. He wants the freedom to strike militants if necessary. Lebanese officials want a full withdrawal.

Separately, the US, Egypt and Qatar have proposed a four-week ceasefire in Gaza during which Hamas would release up to 10 hostages, according to an Egyptian official and a Western diplomat.

But Hamas still appears unwilling to release dozens of hostages without securing a more durable ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, even after the killing of its top leader, Yahya Sinwar. Prime Minister Netanyahu insisted on Israel’s lasting control over parts of the territory.