HEBBARIYE, Lebanon — A series of Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon killed 16 people and a barrage of rockets fired by the militant group Hezbollah killed one Israeli man, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, concerns have grown about further escalation along the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have been displaced by the violence.
Wednesday’s Israeli strikes targeted a Lebanese Sunni political and militant organisation, the Islamic Group, which has joined the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in its fight against Israel. Two Hezbollah fighters were also killed, as was a local commander with the Amal Movement, another Shiite group.
The first Israeli airstrike hit a paramedic centre affiliated with the Islamic Group, killing seven of its members in the village of Hebbariye after midnight.
Muheddine Qarhani, head of the Emergency and Relief Corps, told reporters at the scene that the paramedic center had been set up late last year. He said he was surprised a medical group had been targeted.
Israel said it killed an Islamic Group member involved in attacks against Israel, as well as several other militants.
Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, said Israel was operating against the Islamic Group and had struck a “large number of operatives” and was also conducting “very significant strikes” against Hezbollah.
“We are at war. We have been at war for almost half a year now, and it doesn’t end with Hezbollah,” he told a gathering of commanders.
Hours after the airstrike, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing rockets into the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base. Hezbollah said it was retaliating for the deadly attack on the paramedic centre.
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