Hezbollah targets Kiryat Shmona in response to Bint Jbeil strike
Hezbollah targeted Tuesday Kiryat Shmona and carried out four other attacks on northern Israel, while Israeli artillery shelled in response the Marjayoun plain and al-Wazzani.
Hezbollah said it targeted Kiryat Shmona "in response to the Israeli attacks on southern villages and civilians, especially on Bint Jbeil."
The group had attacked at dawn an Israeli force near the al-Raheb post with artillery shells and another armored force later in the day in the Berkat Risha post.
The group also targeted a group of soldiers on the Tayhat hill and a Merkava tank in the Netu'a settlement "while it was shelling villages and civilians." The attack on Netu'a inflicted casualties, according to Hezbollah's statement.
The attacks Tuesday came after a deadly and violent day during which an Israeli airstrike killed three Hezbollah paramedics in Odaisseh and a missile strike blamed on Hezbollah - although not claimed by the group - killed at least one foreign worker in Margaliot in northern Israel.
Later on Monday, Israeli warplanes raided the southern towns of al-Sultaniyeh, Seddiqin and Bint Jbeil.
The deadly violence Monday came as a senior U.S. envoy visited Beirut and warned that 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 Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said the only way to restore calm along the border is to end the war on Gaza.
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 says.
"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 anti-tank 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.
In Beirut, Hochstein began his talks by meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. He later met with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the army commander, Gen. Joseph Aoun.
Asked if a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip would include Lebanon, he said it wouldn't necessarily be the case "that when you have a cease-fire in Gaza, it automatically extends. That is why we are here today to be able to have a conversation and discussions" on the situation in Lebanon.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, more than 215 Hezbollah fighters and nearly 40 civilians were killed on the Lebanese side while in Israel, nine soldiers and 10 civilians were left dead in the attacks.
Israeli officials have threatened a wider war in Lebanon if Hezbollah does not withdraw its elite fighters north of the Litani River as stipulated in a 2006 truce that ended a 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war.
Western diplomats have brought forward a series of proposals for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, most of which would hinge on Hezbollah moving its forces 7-10 kilometers away from the border.
Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy leader, blasted the United States in a speech Monday during a conference held in the group's stronghold south of Beirut attended by Muslim clerics from several regional states. He blamed Washington for using its veto power three times to prevent resolutions at the U.N. Security Council to end the war in Gaza.
"We have said it clearly that whoever wants to be a mediator should mediate to stop the aggression," Qassem said in his speech. He added that those who don't want the war to expand in the region should deal with the cause "which is the brutal and criminal aggression by America and Israel against Gaza."
"Stop the aggression on Gaza and the war will stop in the region," he said.
Source: Naharnet, Associated Press
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