Wars between Israel and Iran-backed groups continue with rockets killing 7 in Israel and IDF airstrikes in Syria Trendy Blogger

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

The Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon fires daily rockets, drones and missiles at Israel and launches retaliatory strikes since Hamas launched its terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 from 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 United States, Israel and many other countries.

The Israeli military said Thursday it had carried out airstrikes on targets near Qusair, a town in western Syria near the border with Lebanon, where it said Hezbollah had recently started to stockpile weapons in an attempt to smuggle them into Lebanon. The Israeli Defense Forces have repeatedly struck border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, claiming they serve as arms smuggling routes.

According to Syrian media, at least five people were killed in Thursday’s strikes.

The conflict along Israel’s northern border intensified last month when the Israeli military launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallahand most of his deputies. Israeli ground forces then entered Lebanon in early October. Nearly two dozen Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon since then, while Lebanese health authorities say airstrikes have killed around 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 specifying the number or type of projectiles used.

The nationality of the four workers killed in this attack was also not immediately known. Metula, Israel’s northernmost city, is surrounded by Lebanon on three sides and suffered heavy rocket damage. The town’s residents were evacuated in October 2023, and only security guards and farm workers remain.

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an organization that advocates on behalf of foreign workers, said authorities had put them at risk by allowing them to work along the border without adequate protection. Agricultural areas along the Israeli border, where most 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 city of Haifa, in the north of the country. They also treated two other people who were slightly injured and hospitalized. The Israeli military said about 25 rockets entered Israel from Lebanon as part of that volley, which hit an olive grove where people had gathered for the harvest.

Hezbollah new supreme leader, Sheikh Naim Qassemsaid in a video statement Wednesday that the militant group would continue to fight Israel until it is offered ceasefire terms that it considers acceptable. He said he had recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies which have been largely blamed on Israel.

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

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate more areas of southern Lebanon, as airstrikes in different parts of the country killed eight people, according to the Lebanese 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 some 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes, according to the Lebanese government.

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

The United States and other mediating countries have circulated new proposals aimed at ending regional conflicts in the final months of the Biden administration. Negotiations on both fronts have been stalled for months and neither warring side has shown any sign of backing down on its demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were both returning to Israel on Thursday for discussions on possible ceasefires and the release of hostages held by Hamas. CIA Director Bill Burns was scheduled to travel to 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 “made clear that the main problem is not the paperwork of such or such agreement, but only Israel’s determination to enforce the agreement and to thwart any threat to its security from 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. , two officials close to the talks told The Associated Press. Press Wednesday.

But Israel is unlikely to trust UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops – both of whom it accuses of failing to prevent Hezbollah from gaining a foothold in the region during the last decade – to keep Hezbollah out of the buffer zone it has now re-established in southern Lebanon. He wants the freedom to hit activists if necessary. Lebanese officials want a complete withdrawal.

Furthermore, the United States, Egypt and Qatar 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 lasting ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, even after the assassination of its top leader, Yahya Sinwar. Prime Minister Netanyahu has insisted on lasting Israeli control over parts of the territory.