AFPTwo Hezbollah rocket attacks have killed seven people in northern Israel, authorities said – the deadliest day of strikes in months.
An Israeli farmer and four foreign workers were killed when rockets landed near Metula, a town on the border with Lebanon, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said.
Later, an Israeli woman and her grown son were killed in an olive grove near Kibbutz Afek, on the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa.
Hezbollah said it fired rockets at the Krayot area north of Haifa and at Israeli soldiers south of the Lebanese town of Khiam, which is across the border from Metula.
The Israeli military identified two projectiles that landed in Lebanon and landed in an open area near Metula on Thursday morning.
The Israeli farmer who was killed was named by local media as Omer Weinstein, a 46-year-old father of four from nearby Kibbutz Dafna.
According to Haaretz, the four foreign workers who were killed were Thai citizens.
A fifth foreign worker was seriously injured by the explosives. Videos posted online show them being transferred by helicopter to the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.
Haaretz said Mr Weinstein and foreign workers were in an agricultural area near the border fence when they were attacked.
Spoke to a member of the local emergency team who said that the Israeli army allowed them to enter the area even though Metula is inside a closed military zone.
The military established the area at the end of September, shortly before they invaded Lebanon with the aim of destroying Hezbollah’s weapons and infrastructure.
AFPA second rocket attack on Thursday reportedly hit an agricultural area near Kibbutz Afek, which is 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Metula and 28km from the Lebanese border.
The military said 55 bombs had been fired at the Western Galilee region, where the kibbutz is located, as well as the Central Galilee and Upper Galilee in the early hours of the morning. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and others fell into open areas, it added.
According to Haaretz, 60-year-old Mina Hasson and her 30-year-old son, Karmi, were killed by a rocket that hit an olive tree where they were picking olives.
A 70-year-old man was also slightly injured by the explosives and was rushed to the Rambam hospital, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance.
“We were called to an olive grove and saw a 30-year-old man lying unconscious,” MDA emergency workers Mazor and Yishai Levy told the Jerusalem Post.
“We started efforts to revive the atmosphere while we were investigating, where we found another person who died, who is also in a critical condition due to damage to many systems. We gave him medical help and resuscitated him but unfortunately we had to say that both of them died,” they said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Irish army said the UN peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon that the houses of Irish soldiers were hit by a rocket fired by Israel Wednesday night.
The rocket landed in an uninhabited area of Camp Shamrock, which is 7km (4 miles) from the Israeli border, causing minor damage to the ground and causing injuries, Lt Gen Sean Clancy said.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said: “We are thankful that everyone is safe but it is absolutely unacceptable that this has happened. Peacekeepers are protected under international law and the onus is on all sides to ensure that protection.”
The deadly rocket attack in northern Israel came as two special US envoys met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss a ceasefire agreement to end the war with Hezbollah.
Netanyahu told Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk that the biggest problem is what he called Israel’s ability to “prevent any threat to its security in Lebanon in a way that will return our citizens safely to their homes”, his office said in a statement.
Israel has continued to attack Hezbollah – which it describes as a terrorist organization – after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza.
Saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israel’s northern border displaced by rocket attacks, Hezbollah launched its support for the Palestinians a day after a deadly attack by its ally Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
More than 2,800 people have been killed in Lebanon since then, including 2,200 in the past five weeks, and another 1.2 million have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israeli authorities say more than 60 people have been killed by Hezbollah rockets, drones, and missiles in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.
AFPEarlier on Thursday, the Israeli military said that its forces were continuing to operate inside southern Lebanon and that airstrikes had struck dozens of Hezbollah targets across the country.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Lebanon said that Israeli strikes killed six paramedics in three southern cities.
Four members of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Society’s Civil Defense, which provides emergency services, were killed when Israeli forces targeted a meeting point at the Derdghaya junction.
IHS paramedics were killed in a car strike in Deir al-Zahrani, while a strike in Zefta killed paramedics from the Islamic Risala Scout Association, which is affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, according to the ministry.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. But dozens of paramedics and other emergency workers have been killed and wounded since it stepped up its air campaign against Hezbollah five weeks ago.
The military has previously accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters. IHS has denied any ties to military operations.
There were also new Israeli strikes near Baalbek, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a day after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the entire town and two neighboring towns.
The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that A woman died in a strike in Kayyal area.
Another six people died when a house was bombed in Maqna, which is five kilometers northeast of Baalbek but was not in the evacuation zone, the report said.
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