Four dead after strikes on border of Israel, Lebanon
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed three paramedics from the militant group Hezbollah on Monday, state media said, hours after a missile strike blamed on the militants killed at least one foreign worker in northern Israel.
The deadly violence Monday came as a senior U.S. envoy visited Beirut and warned a Gaza truce wouldn’t necessarily apply to conflict along the Lebanon-Israel border. Amos Hochstein urged the parties to reach a lasting cease-fire at the border following meetings Monday with Lebanese leaders.
His comments came hours after the deputy leader of Lebanon’s militant group Hamas, Naim Kassem, said the only way to restore calm along the border is to end the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Since the Israel-Hamas war started, Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel almost daily, displacing thousands of people and spiking fear that the conflict may spread through the region. In northern Israel, 60,000 people have evacuated, the Israeli government said.
“People won’t come back anytime soon, they’re scared, it’s dangerous,” Haim Menus, 70, said Monday while buying hardware at one of the rare stores open in the nearly abandoned northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. He is one of the few who have remained, working curtailed hours at a bakery.
“An anti-tank missile could come at any time,” Menus said.
Moments later, an antitank missile struck a field in the nearby community of Margaliot as sirens blared, killing one Indian worker and injuring seven other foreign workers from India and Thailand, according the Israel Rescue Services and the Israeli army. Paramedics evacuated the injured — two of them in serious condition — to hospitals via ambulance and helicopter.
The Israeli military said they struck the source of the launches as well as additional Hezbollah military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.
In Lebanon, the staterun National News Agency said one of the Israeli airstrikes killed three paramedics with Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society in the border village of Oddaiseh.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters aborted two infiltration attempts the night before by Israeli troops into a border area in southern Lebanon. It also said its fighters carried out three attacks targeting Israeli posts along the border.
In Beirut, Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, began his talks by meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally. He later met with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the army commander, Gen. Joseph Aoun.
“The United States remains committed to advancing lasting security solutions achieved through diplomatic process,” Hochstein told reporters after he met Berri. He said such a move would allow tens of thousands of Lebanese and Israelis who were displaced by the conflict “to safely return” to their homes.