Lebanon has killed five people in the deadliest attack on northern Israel since the invasion

By MELANIE LIDMAN, JULIA FRANKEL and FADI TAWIL

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Rockets fired from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel Thursday, Israeli medics said, bringing the death toll there to seven, marking the deadliest strikes to hit Israel since its army invaded southern Lebanon earlier. month.

The attack took place while senior US diplomats were in the region to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gazahoping to end the wars in the Middle East in the final months of the Biden administration.

Hezbollah has launched rockets, drones and rockets into Israel and drawn retaliatory strikes since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in the Gaza Strip sparked the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies supported by Iran.

The conflict along the border escalated into full-scale war last month when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes in Lebanon and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces pushed into Lebanon in early October.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said its doctors confirmed the deaths of a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman in a northern suburb of Haifa. 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 the salvo that hit an olive grove where people had gathered for the harvest.

The deadly attack came just hours after local officials in Metula, northern Israel, said projectiles fired from Lebanon had hit an agricultural area, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer.

Metula, Israel’s northernmost city, which is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides, suffered severe damage from the rockets. The town’s residents were evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and farm workers remained.

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.

Newly appointed Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said 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 was widely blamed on Israel.

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

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate from several areas in southern Lebanon as airstrikes in different 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. About 1.2 million people have been displaced since the escalation in September.

Thousands of people fled Baalbek, the main city in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and surrounding areas after Israeli evacuation warnings and airstrikes on Wednesday.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in Deir al-Ahmar region, about 17 kilometers (10 miles) to the southeast, said the main highway had “turned into a parking lot.” He said about 12,000 displaced people are being accommodated in the area, most of them housed in private houses.

At one of the shelters, families with luggage were still arriving Thursday.

“Our houses were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing – no clothes or anything – and we took shelter here.”

More than 2,800 people have been killed and nearly 13,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began last year, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

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.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Tawil from Deir al-Ahmar, Lebanon.

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Originally published: October 31, 2024 at 5:51 am MDT