Israel was hit with a projectile from Lebanon, killing several

The conflict along Israel’s northern border escalated into all-out war last month when Israel launched a wave of heavy airstrikes in Lebanon that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his deputies . Israeli ground forces pushed into southern Lebanon on 1 October. Over the past year, Israel’s extended campaign against Hezbollah has killed 2,800 people in Lebanon, wounded nearly 13,000 and devastated Lebanese towns near the border.

About 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since Israel’s escalation in September. Hezbollah’s stepped-up rocket attacks into Israel have forced 60,000 Israelis to evacuate from communities near the border. After more than a year of war, they remain displaced.

On Thursday, shells from Lebanon crashed into an agricultural area in Metula, Israel’s northernmost city, killing four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer in the deadliest such attack since Israel launched its ground invasion.

The residents of Metula were evacuated in October 2023, and only security officials and agricultural workers remained.

The Refugee and Migrant Hotline, an Israeli organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them at risk by allowing them to work along the border without adequate protection.

Hours later, the Israeli military reported another salvo of about 25 rockets crossed into Israel from Lebanon, hitting an olive grove in a suburb of the northern port city of Haifa.

Thursday’s second barrage killed a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman, Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said, and injured two others. Israeli media reported that the victims had gathered to harvest olives at the time of the attack.

The agricultural areas along the border with Israel, where much of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military zones, patrolled by Israeli troops, which cannot be entered without official permission. For the area’s few remaining residents, the sound of missile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and the constant wail of sirens warning of rocket fire punctuate daily life.

However, local officials in Israel are largely supportive of continuing a ground operation in southern Lebanon.

Amos Hochstein, a special adviser to President Biden on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, pushed for a cease-fire agreement to address the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“If the Israeli government adheres to an agreement that was brought by Amos Hochstein … we will not have it because for us it means rehabilitating Hezbollah again on our borders,” said Eitan Davidi, the mayor of Margaliot, in the north of which it is located. air raid sirens sounded repeatedly on Thursday. “Hezbollah fires on civilians and farmers and hits innocent farmers working in the fields.”

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 had recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks that used explosive pagers and walkie-talkies that were 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.

Thousands of people have fled Baalbek, the main city in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and surrounding areas in the past 24 hours following Israeli warnings to evacuate.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Bekaa Valley’s Deir al-Ahmar region, said Israeli airstrikes that hit the area had turned the main highway into “a parking lot” of fleeing cars stuck in traffic. About 12,000 displaced people remain in the area, he said, most taking refuge in private homes.

At one of the shelters in Deir al-Ahmar, families with luggage were still arriving on Thursday.

“Our houses were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing—no clothes or anything.”

Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Tawil from Deir al-Ahmar, Lebanon. Associated Press writer Eleanor H. Reich in New York contributed to this report.