Hezbollah shells military sites in northern Israel amid escalation

BEIRUT

Lebanese group Hezbollah hit a settlement and several military sites in northern Israel on Thursday amid an escalation in cross-border warfare with Israel.

Hezbollah said that its fighters had struck the complexes of Rafael Electronics Company north of Haifa city and the Kiryat Motzkin settlement with salvos of rockets.

It said the rocket attacks were “in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza and their courageous resistance and in defense of Lebanon and its people."

Lebanon’s state-run news agency NNA, meanwhile, reported fresh Israeli airstrikes on the towns of Adloun, Ansarieh, and Jourit Al-Najasa in southern Lebanon.

The attacks came despite a joint call by the US, EU, and nine other nations for Israel and Hezbollah late Wednesday to agree to a 21-day cease-fire.

Israel has pounded Lebanon since Monday morning, killing at least 640 people and injuring over 2,500 others, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border clashes since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,500 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.

The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of spreading the Gaza conflict regionally.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar