Seven people—including four foreign workers and three Israelis—were killed in northern Israel on Thursday following two separate rocket attacks fired from Lebanon by the terrorist group Hezbollah, officials have confirmed.
An Israeli farmer and four Thai agricultural workers were among those killed when rockets landed near Metula, Israel’s northernmost town on the border with Lebanon, Israeli and Thai officials said.
Hours later, a 30-year-old man and 60-year-old woman were killed when Hezbollah fired some 25 rockets from Lebanon, striking an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa.
Two others were wounded during that rocket attack, Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical organization, said.
Thursday’s rocket fire marked the deadliest cross-border strikes in Israel since it launched a ground invasion of Lebanon at the start of October. Israel says the incursion is part of efforts to destroy weapons and infrastructure—including storage facilities and observations posts—belonging to Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
Israel’s military said 90 projectiles were fired from neighboring Lebanon on Thursday.
Hezbollah has not yet claimed responsibility for Thursday’s rocket attack.
Israel Kills Deputy Head of Hezbollah’s Elite Radwan Force
Shahadi “advanced numerous terrorist attacks against Israel and oversaw attacks against IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon,” according to the Israeli air force.He was also previously responsible for the Radwan Forces’ operations during combat in Syria from 2012 to 2017, according to a statement from the air force.
Thursday’s strikes in northern Israel came one day after Lebanon’s health ministry said 19 people, including eight women, were killed by Israeli strikes on two towns in the Baalbek area.
It did not comment on the deaths.
Blinken said the negotiators have made “progress” toward reaching “understandings of what would be required” for the effective implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which was adopted by the U.N. Security Council in 2006 with the aim of keeping peace on the border between Hezbollah and Israel.
The U.S. secretary of state said it is important to ensure Washington receives clarity from Lebanon and Israel regarding what would be required under 1701 to ensure its effective implementation.
This would include the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the border, the deployment of the Lebanese armed forces, establishing the authorities under which they'd be acting, and an appropriate enforcement mechanism, Blinken said.
“I can tell you that based on my recent trip to the region, the work that’s ongoing right now, we have made good progress on those understandings,” Blinken said.
