Israel’s war with Iran-backed groups continues 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 migrant workers, in the deadliest such attack since Israel was attacked earlier this month. The attacks on two separate sites came as top US diplomats were in the region to push for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to end the fierce fighting between Israel and Iran-backed groups in the Middle East in the final months of the Biden administration. .

The Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon has been firing rockets, drones and missiles at Israel every day, and is trying to retaliate, since Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023 in the Gaza Strip, it began. war there.

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

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had carried out airstrikes on targets near Qusair, a western Syrian city near the Lebanese border, where they said Hezbollah had recently begun storing weapons it was trying to smuggle into Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces have attacked border crossings between Lebanon and Syria several times, saying they were arms smuggling routes.

Syrian media reports say at least five people were killed in Thursday’s strike.

Clashes on Israel’s northern border escalated last month when the IDF launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and killed the top leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahand most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces then entered Lebanon in early October. At least two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since then, and Lebanese health authorities say airstrikes have killed around 2,000 people across the country.

The Metula district council in northern Israel reported the first rocket attack on Thursday, killing five people, without specifying the number or type of explosives used.

The nationalities of the four workers killed in the incident were also unknown. Metula, the northernmost city in Israel, is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides and has been heavily damaged by rockets. The town’s residents left in October 2023, with only security officials and agricultural workers remaining.

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an organization that represents foreign workers, says the authorities have put them at risk by allowing them to work at the border without proper protection. The agricultural areas on Israel’s border, where most of the country’s fields are located, are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission.

Shortly after the strike, Magen David Adom, an emergency health organization in Israel, said that health workers confirmed the death of a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman in the northern area of ​​the city of Haifa. They also treated two other people who received minor injuries and were hospitalized. The Israeli military said about 25 rockets fell into Israel from Lebanon as part of that volley, hitting an olive grove where people had gathered to harvest it.

The Hezbollah group The newly appointed supreme leader, Sheikh Naim Qassemsaid in a video statement on Wednesday that the militant group will continue to fight Israel until it is given the conditions to end the war that it deems acceptable. He said he has recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies who were most suspected in 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 many areas in southern Lebanon, as airstrikes in different parts of the country killed eight people, according to the National News Agency of Lebanon. Israel has 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 around 13,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began more than a year ago, and around 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to the Lebanese government.

In Israel, rockets, missiles, and drones launched by Hezbollah have killed at least 68 people, almost half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis from towns and villages near the border have been evicted from their homes for over a year.

The US and other mediating nations have been circulating new proposals to end regional conflicts during the final months of the Biden administration. Negotiations on both sides have been stalled for months and none of the warring parties have shown any signs of backing down from their demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein both returned to Israel on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire and the release of Hamas hostages. CIA Director Bill Burns was to visit Egypt to discuss those 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 of this or that agreement, but only. Israel’s determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security in Lebanon.”

One proposal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah calls for a two-month ceasefire in which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon, and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the southern border, two officials familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. Press on Wednesday.

But Israel is unlikely to trust UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army — both of which it accuses of failing to prevent Hezbollah from gaining ground in the area over the past decade — to keep Hezbollah out of the territory it has reestablished in southern Lebanon. It wants the freedom to attack the military if necessary. Lebanese officials want to withdraw completely.

Separately, the US, Egypt and Qatar have proposed a four-week ceasefire in Gaza during which Hamas will 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 a permanent deal and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, even after the assassination of its top leader, Yahya Sinwar. Prime Minister Netanyahu insisted on permanent Israeli control over parts of the area.