HEBARIE, Lebanon (AP) – A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people, an Israeli man was killed in a barrage of rocket fire by the militant group Hezbollah, and five people were killed along the border Wednesday. It was the deadliest day in more than a month of fighting.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, there have been growing concerns about further escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been forced to flee due to the violence.
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Wednesday’s Israeli airstrikes targeted the Islamic Group, a Lebanese Sunni political and extremist group that has joined the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in the war against Israel. Two Hezbollah fighters were also killed, as was a local commander of another Shiite group, the Amal Movement.
Emergency workers search for victims among the rubble of an emergency care center that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike early Wednesday morning, Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in the village of Hebbariye in southern Lebanon. Killed in an Israeli airstrike on an emergency care center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group. Some of its members. The airstrike was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border more than five months ago. (AP Photo/Mohamed Zaatari)
The first Israeli airstrike hit an emergency care center belonging to the Islamic group, killing seven members of the Islamic group in the village of Hebaliyeh shortly after midnight.
Muhedin Qalhani, head of the Emergency Relief Corps, told reporters at the scene that the emergency care center was set up late last year. He said he was surprised that the medical community was targeted.
Israel says it has killed a member of an Islamic group and several other militants involved in attacks against Israel.
Major General Oli Godin, commander of Israel’s Northern Command, said Israel was conducting operations against the Islamic group, attacking “a large number of operatives” and also carrying out “very large-scale attacks” against Hezbollah. He said that
“We are at war. The war has been going on for almost six months now, but it’s not over with Hezbollah,” he told a gathering of commanders.
Hours after the airstrike, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base. Hezbollah said he was in retaliation for a deadly attack on an emergency medical center.
Israeli rescue services say a 25-year-old man has died after a direct hit caused a fire in an industrial park in Kiryat Shmona. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke billowing from the building.
Another person also suffered minor injuries. According to the Israeli military, about 30 rockets were fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel.
Nada Cliff was at her small bakery in Hebbariye, and while her shop and nearby apartment building were severely damaged during the strike, two of her relatives were unharmed.
“The bakery was my only means of survival, and it’s gone,” she said.
According to the Lebanese News Agency, Israel bombed the village of Teir Halfa after sunset, killing five people, and a second attack killed four people as emergency workers gathered near a cafe in the coastal town of Nakoura. .
Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Association announced that two of its emergency workers were killed in Teir Halfa.
The Islamic Risala Scout Association, another emergency medical group, announced that one of its members had died in the attack on Nakoula.
National Assembly Speaker Navi Berri’s Amal Movement said one of the local commanders, identified as Ali Mahdi, was killed in the attack on Naqora. Hezbollah said the two fighters were killed without specifying where they were shot.
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The near-daily violence is largely confined to areas along the country’s borders, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting left nine Israeli civilians and 11 soldiers dead. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians were killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8, a day after the Hamas-led militant group, which sparked the devastating war in Gaza, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack.
