7 Lebanese and an Israeli killed in exchange of fire
An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early Wednesday and triggered a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed one person in northern Israel, officials said.
The strike on the village of Hebbariye came after a day of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group along the Lebanon-Israel border, raising concerns of further escalation along the frontier that has been active for the past five months of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
The airstrike after midnight Tuesday hit an office of the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps, according to the Lebanese Ambulance Association. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the border.
The paramedics association listed the names of seven volunteers who were killed in the strike. It said the strike was “a flagrant violation of humanitarian work.”
Hebbariye resident Ali Noureddine told The Associated Press that the seven dead were pulled out from the rubble before sunrise Wednesday.
Muheddine Qarhani, head of the Emergency and Relief Corps, told reporters at the scene that the center that was struck was set up late last year, after the latest round of violence broke out. He said they were surprised that a paramedic group was targeted.
“They were here waiting to respond to a rescue call and ended up getting hit by missiles that brought the building over their heads,” he said.
The Israeli military said it struck a military building in Hebbariye and killed a member of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants. It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel.
Hours later, Hezbollah said it retaliated against the airstrike by firing dozens of rockets Wednesday morning on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base there.
Rescue services in Israel said that a 25 year-old man was killed when a direct hit sparked a fire in an industrial park in Kiryat Shmona. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke pouring out of a building.
Another person was slightly injured. Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
Nada Khleif was in her small bakery in Hebbariyeh when the strike heavily damaged her business and a nearby apartment, where two of her relatives were unharmed.
“The bakery was my only means of living. It is gone now,” she said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and
about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.
Graham weighs in
Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham wants the Biden administration and Congress to allow Israel to militarily defeat all remaining Hamas fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah — which is overflowing with more than a million displaced civilians. Israel says there are thousands of Hamas terrorists in that area.
Defeating Hamas in Rafah is “non-negotiable,” Graham told reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday. “I urge the Biden administration, the Congress to make sure that Israel has the time and space to achieve victory over Hamas militarily.”
The U.S. Department of Defense wants Israel to protect civilians and secure the delivery of aid into Gaza during any military operation into Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled to escape fighting in other areas and
are packed into rudimentary tent camps and U.N.run shelters.
Israel was meant to send a delegation to Washington to discuss plans for defeating Hamas in Rafah. However, Israel cancelled the visit after the U.S. allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, without linking the two.
The canceled meeting was the strongest public clash between Israel and the U.S. since the war began.
Graham said he understood Israel’s opposition to the U.N. resolution, saying the wording created doubt. But he hoped for a “breakthrough” that would bring Israel and the U.S. “back together talking about the way forward.”
Netanyahu weighs in
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his decision not to send a delegation to Washington
for talks with the Biden administration was meant to deliver a message to Hamas that international pressure against Israel will not prompt it to end the war without concessions from the terrorist group.
Speaking to visiting Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida on Wednesday, Netanyahu said the canceled visit “was a message first and foremost to Hamas: Don’t bet on this pressure, it’s not going to work.”
Netanyahu said the U.S. abstention was “very, very bad,” and that it “encouraged Hamas to take a hard line and to believe that international pressure will prevent Israel” from achieving its war aims.
Airstrike kills at least 4
Palestinian health officials said an airstrike on an apartment building in the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah has killed at least four people.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies arrive at a local hospital. Relatives said another 10 people were still buried under the rubble.
Palestinians could be seen digging through the remains of a pancaked building early Wednesday.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 32,490 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians but says women and children make up around two-third of those killed.
The Israeli military says it has killed over 13,000 fighters. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes.
18 people died
Palestinian officials said at least six people drowned earlier this week while trying to recover airdropped food aid in northern Gaza.
Mahmoud Bassel, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense rescue service, said a large group of men swam out into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday to try to recover aid parcels. Six bodies were later recovered and transferred to a nearby hospital.
He said Wednesday that a total of 18 people have died while trying to recover airdropped aid in scenes of chaos and desperation.
“Sometimes it falls into the sea, sometimes on civilians, sometimes on houses, sometimes on Israeli territory beyond the border fence,” he said.
The Hamas-run government media office has also reported 18 deaths related to the aid drops. The United States and other nations have carried out several airdrops in recent weeks to try to get food to Palestinians in northern Gaza, where experts say famine is imminent.