Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire across border
Tensions remain high; efforts to aid Gaza advance
SAFRI, Lebanon — A pair of Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday in northeastern Lebanon killed at least two people and wounded 20, continuing an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah over the war Israel is waging against Hamas militants in Gaza.
One of the airstrikes destroyed a warehouse that reportedly was used to store food.
The Israeli military said the airstrikes were in response to rocket attacks over northern Israel earlier in the day. Hezbollah said they struck several Israeli military positions, including two bases in northern Israel with a barrage of 100 Katyusha rockets.
The exchanges also followed Israeli strikes near the Lebanese city of Baalbek late on Monday night.
Initially, an official from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group said one person was killed in the airstrikes in the town of Safri. A Lebanese security official later said at least two people were killed and 20 were wounded, nine of whom remain at a hospital.
The official said it was unclear if the two killed were Hezbollah members or civilians. Both the security official and the Hezbollah figure spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Last month, at least two Hezbollah members were killed in airstrikes near Baalbek and another warehouse was destroyed. It had also stocked food that is part of Hezbollah’s Sajjad Project, which sells food to people in the group’s stronghold at prices lower than on the market.
Earlier Tuesday, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah met with a top Hamas official, Khalil Hayeh, who was involved in negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza. Last week, Qatar- and Egyptmediated efforts to broker a truce in Gaza before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan broke down.
Since the Gaza war erupted after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages, there have been near-daily exchanges along the Lebanon-Israel border and international mediators have scrambled to prevent an all-out war in tiny Lebanon.
In Israel’s subsequent offensive into Gaza, at least 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamasrun coastal enclave. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
Hezbollah has said that a cease-fire in Gaza would be the only way to restore calm along the Lebanon-Israel border, though Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last month that anyone who thinks a temporary cease-fire for Gaza will also apply to the northern front was “mistaken.”
Efforts to aid desperate Gaza citizens advanced on Tuesday. An aid ship loaded with some 200 tons of food set sail in a pilot program for the opening of a sea corridor to the territory.
The push to get food in by sea — along with a recent campaign of airdrops into isolated northern Gaza — highlighted the international community’s frustration with the growing humanitarian crisis and its inability to get aid in by roads.
The food on the aid ship was collected by World Central Kitchen, the charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, and it is being transported by the Spanish aid group Open Arms. The ship departed from the eastern Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus and is expected to arrive in Gaza in two to three days.
The United States has separately announced plans to construct a sea bridge near Gaza in order to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational. President Biden’s administration has provided crucial military aid for Israel while urging it to facilitate more humanitarian access.
Aid groups say it is nearly impossible to deliver aid in much of Gaza because of Israeli restrictions, ongoing hostilities, and the breakdown of order after the Hamas-run police force largely vanished from the streets.