Israel fires on Lebanon after another rocket kills soldier
Israel carried out extensive and lethal airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on northern Israel, escalations in recent fighting that threaten to derail diplomatic efforts to prevent a major expansion of the war in the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attack from Lebanon was the second in two days to cause casualties in northern Israel, striking a military base near the city of Safed — beyond the border zone that Israel has evacuated for months because of the fighting.
A soldier was killed, the military said, identifying her as serving with Israel’s border protection service. Eight other people were wounded, according to Magen David Adom, the emergency medical service.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas, the armed group Israel has been battling in Gaza for more than four months.
Hezbollah and Israel have launched dozens of tit-for-tat strikes across the border, fueling fears that the exchanges could expand to a full-fledged second front in the war.
Within hours of the rocket attack, Israel’s military said it had carried out strikes against “a series of Hezbollah terrorist targets,” including compounds and control rooms.
Lebanese broadcasters showed images and videos of smoke plumes and destruction.
The state news agency reported that strikes hit at least eight areas, killing a woman and her two children.
Hezbollah said one of its fighters had also been killed, and a senior official with the group, Hashem Safieddine, vowed a response.
Meanwhile, international efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas suffered a setback Wednesday as Israel reportedly recalled its negotiating team and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of hobbling the high-stakes negotiations by sticking to “delusional” demands.
Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after local media reported that the Israeli leader had ordered an Israeli delegation not to continue talks in Cairo, raising concerns over the fate of the negotiations and sparking criticism from the families of the roughly 130 remaining captives, about a fourth of whom are said to be dead.
The relatives of the hostages said Netanyahu’s decision amounted to a “death sentence” for their loved ones.
The mediation efforts, steered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have been working to bring the warring sides toward an agreement that might secure a truce in the monthslong war, which has killed more than 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
The fighting has destroyed vast parts of Gaza, displaced most of the territory’s population and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.
Hamas meanwhile said Netanyahu was to blame. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told The Associated Press that Israel had put forward a proposal that strayed from agreements reached during earlier cease-fire talks.
Israeli officials have warned repeatedly that they would take much stronger military action in Lebanon if the cross-border violence continued; Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and 2006 in response to such attacks.
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, cautioned that “this is not the time to stop” striking Hezbollah — which, like Hamas, is backed by Iran — and warned that “there is still a long way to go.”
Hezbollah has been equally defiant.
Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, said Tuesday, “You escalate, we escalate.”
The clashes between Hezbollah and Israel have displaced more than 150,000 people on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border since the war with Hamas began in October.