Hezbollah attack kills five in Israel

A Hezbollah attack on northern Israel’s Metula killed five people including an Israeli farmer and four foreign workers, Israel’s Channel 12 reported yesterday as Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed six health workers in the country’s south.

US envoys and Israeli officials were due to meet in Israel later to discuss efforts towards a ceasefire in both Lebanon, where Israeli forces are battling Iran-backed Hezbollah, and in Gaza, where they are fighting Hamas.

Israel issued an evacuation warning to residents of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon for a second consecutive day. On Wednesday it conducted heavy airstrikes targeting Hezbollah in and around the city, which is famed for its Roman temples.

Dozens of cars could be seen speeding out of the area after yesterday’s warning, with wafts of black smoke still visible emanating from the town of Douris, where an Israeli strike the previous day destroyed Hezbollah fuel stocks, according to the Israeli military and a Lebanese security source.

Thousands fleeing the violence have sought shelter in the nearby Christian-majority town Deir al-Ahmar, where local official Jean Fakhry said authorities were struggling to cover even a fraction of needs and some people had spent the night in their cars.

“We cannot continue this way,” he said.

The killing of six Lebanese health workers and wounding of four others in three separate strikes across south Lebanon yesterday brought the total toll of health workers killed and wounded in over a year of Israeli strikes to 178 and 279 respectively, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Hezbollah said it had launched several rocket and artillery attacks against Israeli forces near the southern town of Khiyam yesterday. It marked the fourth straight day of fighting in and around the strategic hilltop town, which is home to one of the largest Shi’ite communities in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah aims to keep Israeli forces out of the town to prevent them detonating homes and buildings, as has happened on a large scale in other border towns, a source familiar with the group’s thinking told Reuters.