At least two people have been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, according to first responders and local media, amid growing concerns that the war between Israel and Hamas could spread further afield. beyond Gaza.
Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Ainata on Monday, according to a first aid organization affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement and Lebanese state media.
It was not immediately clear whether those killed were civilians.
The Israeli army earlier said that “terrorists fired at several locations in northern Israel.”
The army said its artillery hit the source of the fire and hit positions that “terrorists were using to carry out fire towards Israel.”
In another attack, Israeli forces shelled media crews and journalists in the Lebanese border village of Yaroun, Lebanon’s official NNA news agency reported.
Issam Mawasi, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was injured in the bombing and the channel’s broadcast vehicle was damaged.
Separately, the Israeli power company said an employee died Monday after being injured in a missile attack carried out the day before by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah exchanged fire with Israeli forces from its stronghold in southern Lebanon after Israel launched an attack on Gaza last month in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Palestinian officials in Gaza say more than 11,200 people, including more than 4,600 children, have been killed since the Israeli attack began on October 7.
Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
The exchanges of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border constitute the deadliest violence in the region since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
More than 70 Hezbollah fighters and 10 civilians were killed in Lebanon, and 10 people, including seven soldiers, were killed in Israel. Thousands more people on both sides fled the bombings.
Until now, the violence has been largely confined to a strip of territory on either side of the border.
Israel has said it does not want war on its northern front as it seeks to topple Hamas in Gaza. The United States has said it does not want the conflict to spread to the region and has sent two aircraft carriers to the region to deter Iran from getting involved.
But that has not stopped the escalation of rhetoric from Hezbollah and Israel.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that the Lebanese front would “remain active” and said there was “a quantitative improvement” in the pace of the group’s operations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah on Monday not to expand its attacks.
“It’s playing with fire. The fire will be answered with a much more powerful fire. They should not judge us, because we have only shown a little of our strength,” he said in a statement.
Asked at a press conference Saturday about Israel’s red line, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “If you hear that we attacked Beirut, you will understand that Nasrallah crossed that line. »
“Tit for tat”
Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday that he was reassured by Hezbollah’s “rationalism” so far.
“We are showing restraint and it is up to Israel to put an end to its ongoing provocations in southern Lebanon,” he said.
Lebanon took years to rebuild after the 2006 war and can ill afford another war, four years after the start of a financial crisis that has impoverished many Lebanese and paralyzed the state.
Israel has long viewed Hezbollah as the biggest threat along its borders. The 2006 war killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the violence “retaliatory exchanges between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israeli forces in the north,” predicting that Israel would remain focused on the Hezbollah threat “for the foreseeable future.” .
“And certainly no one really wants to see another conflict break out in the north, on the border with Israel,” he told reporters in Seoul.
Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center said: “I certainly see a broader escalation, but I’m not sure about an all-out conflict that no one wants.
“No one wants just one side, and I think the United States plays an important role in keeping the situation under control.”
