Rocket barrages fired from Lebanon have killed seven people in northern Israel, authorities say.
Agricultural areas along the border and near the city of Haifa were struck in what was the deadliest attack from Lebanon since the Israeli military earlier this month.
Four foreign workers and an Israeli farmer were killed in an attack on Israel’s northernmost city of Metula, which has been largely evacuated due to the ongoing conflict.
A second missile barrage of around 25 rockets killed a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman in a suburb of Haifa, leaving two others injured.
Agricultural areas along Israel’s border, where much of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military zones patrolled by Israeli troops that can only be entered with official permission.
For the few residents remaining in the area, the thump of missile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system and the constant wailing of sirens warning of incoming rocket fire punctuate daily life.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles into Israel, and drawing fierce Israeli retaliatory strikes, in the year since Hamas’ October 7 attack out of the Gaza Strip triggered Israel’s invasion and bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
Both Hezbollah and Palestinian military group Hamas are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary..
The military group did not immediately claim responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
Over the past year, the broadening Israeli campaign against Hezbollah has killed 2,800 people in Lebanon, wounded nearly 13,000 and devastated Lebanese towns near the border.
Some 1.2 million have been displaced since Israel’s escalation in September.
60,000 Israelis have also been forced to evacuate from their communities near the border with Lebanon.
The conflict along Israel’s northern border escalated into a full-blown war last month, when Israel launched a wave of heavy air strikes across Lebanon that killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his deputies.
The most recent assault came as top US diplomats were in the region to push for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza.
The senior US officials are hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration’s final months, with pressure building ahead of the US election next week.
