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Heavy fire from Lebanon targeted northern Israel on Saturday, the Israeli military said, adding it had responded by striking a “terrorist cell” that took part in the attack, as top US and European diplomats sought to stop spillover from the Gaza war.
Shortly after rocket sirens sounded across northern Israel, the military said that "approximately 40 launches from Lebanon toward the area of Meron in northern Israel were identified".
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Lebanese armed group Hizbullah said it had hit a key Israeli observation post early on Saturday with 62 rockets as a “preliminary response” to the killing of Hamas’s deputy chief this week in Beirut.
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Lebanon’s Sunni Islamist Jama’a Islamiya faction said in a statement on Saturday it had fired two volleys of rockets at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.
Tensions have been ratcheted higher since Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri was killed by a drone on Tuesday in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the stronghold of Hamas’s Iranian-backed Lebanese ally Hizbullah, in an attack widely attributed to sworn foe Israel.
[ Israel-Hizbullah hostilities: Region north and south of Lebanon border now a ghost town ]
The head of Hizbullah, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday that Lebanon would be “exposed” to more Israeli operations if his group did not respond to the killing.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and the European Union’s senior diplomat Josep Borrell began a new diplomatic push on Friday to stop the spread of the three-month-old Gaza war into Lebanon, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Red Sea shipping lanes.
Israel and Hizbullah often trade fire across the border, the West Bank is very restive and the Iran-aligned Houthis seem determined to continue attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes in a bid to make Israel halt its bombardment of Gaza.
Israel’s onslaught began after Hamas militants from Gaza attacked Israel on October 7th, with 1,200 people killed and 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
The offensive, aimed at wiping out the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has killed 22,600 people according to Palestinian health officials, and devastated the densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people.
There has been no let-up in the conflict despite several trips to the region by Mr Blinken and other senior diplomats.
[ Israel targets Hizbullah cells and weapon stores in strikes across south Lebanon ]
The official Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Saturday that 18 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli attack on a house east of Khan Younis in Gaza. In the West Bank village of Beit Rima, the Palestinian health ministry said a 17-year-old was shot dead by Israeli forces, while four other people were injured.
Israel, which says it has killed 8,000 militants since the October 7th Hamas attack, has announced a more targeted approach as it faces global pressure to limit huge civilian casualties.
Israel has listed 175 soldiers as killed in action since its offensive began.
Mr Blinken is due to visit the West Bank during his week-long tour which started on Friday in Turkey, which has offered to mediate in the Gaza conflict. He will also hold talks in Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, is backed by Iran. Other Iranian-backed militants have hit US forces in Iraq and Syria and struck Israel from Lebanon.
The traumatised residents of Gaza, most of whose population have been displaced by the bombardment, are facing a devastating humanitarian crisis, with food, medicine and fuel in low supply.
Mr Borrell sounded the alarm on Saturday about Lebanon being dragged further into the regional conflict.
Mr Borrell, speaking in Lebanon, said it was imperative to avoid escalation and warned Israel that “nobody will win from a regional conflict”.
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He was commenting at a news conference with Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati following talks with government officials on the Gaza conflict and the situation at the Israeli-Lebanese border.
“We are seeing a worrying intensification of exchange of fire across the Blue Line,” Mr Borrell said.
The Blue Line demarcation between the two countries is a frontier mapped by the United Nations that marks the line to which Israeli forces pulled back when they withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000. – Reuters