Two dead in southern Lebanon as fighting escalates between Hezbollah and Israel | Gaza news

The latest attacks come as Israeli officials step up calls for an escalation of fighting along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

At least two people have reportedly been killed in southern Lebanon. Cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel continues and there is a risk of a wider war.

The two killings were the result of Israeli attacks on the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun, Lebanon’s state-run news agency NNA reported on Saturday. The agency said Israeli missiles had targeted a cafe at a gas station.

In a statement, Hezbollah accused Israel of “attacking civilians,” while the Israeli military later said its forces had attacked a Hezbollah fighter in the area. The identity of those killed was not immediately known.

Also on Saturday, Hezbollah announced it had fired Falaq-2 rockets at a military command center in northern Israel. A security source told Reuters that this was the first time such rockets had been fired at Israel. Falaq-1 rockets have been used by Hezbollah in several attacks on Israel.

The violence comes at a time when both Hezbollah and Israel have intensified cross-border fighting that has been ongoing since October last year. The Lebanon-based group says it wants to divert Israeli resources from the war in Gaza.

However, Israeli politicians have stepped up their rhetoric in recent days, increasing the risk of a more destructive escalation along the country’s northern border.

Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was prepared for “a very intensive operation” along the border with Lebanon.

“One way or another, we will restore security in the north,” he said on Wednesday. That day, an Israeli soldier was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in the town of Hurfeish. Ten others were injured.

Meanwhile, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir went further, saying on Telegram on Tuesday that “all Hezbollah strongholds should also be burned and destroyed” and called for “war.” A day earlier, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had called for a “ground invasion” to push Hezbollah fighters back from the border.

For his part, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem told Al Jazeera earlier this week that the group did not intend to expand the war but was nevertheless “ready,” warning of “devastation, destruction and expulsion” of Israelis if it came to that.

According to Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities, more than 300 members and about 80 civilians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. According to the Israeli military, 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed in attacks from Lebanon on Israel.

The fighting is the fiercest since the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have had to leave their homes.

Cross-border fighting continues

On Saturday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for six attacks on Israel, including attacks on the Zarit barracks and Israeli soldiers at a newly constructed artillery training range in the occupied Shebaa Farms. The group claimed to have carried out a “direct hit” in both cases.

Israel said it intercepted two rockets fired from Lebanon at the Zarit region in the Upper Galilee region. The military also said its fighter jets hit infrastructure in the Khiam region. Its tanks had previously fired on a Hezbollah military structure in the Kfarkela region.

Israeli attacks with “phosphorus incendiary grenades” also caused forest fires in the Alma ash-Shaab area, NNA reported.

During a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden in the French capital Paris on Saturday, French President Emmanual Macron called on both sides to de-escalate the situation.

France, which occupied Lebanon after the partition of the Ottoman Empire, tried to act as a mediator between Israel and Hezbollah in the recent outbreak of unrest.

Macron said France and the United States would “double their efforts together to prevent an explosion in the region, especially in Lebanon.”

Paris is working to “improve the parameters” to reduce tensions and fill the institutional vacuum in Lebanon, he added.

Meanwhile, former head of the Mossad intelligence department, Haim Tome, told Israeli media outlet Hayom on Saturday that a war with Hezbollah would seriously undermine Israel’s ability to function as a state.

Tome warned that a full-scale war with Hezbollah would mean attacks deeper inside Israel, possibly including on Tel Aviv.

The former politician also warned that Hezbollah could use its extensive weapons arsenal, which includes precision missiles, to attack Israeli gas fields.