Israel said it would respond “toughly” to a Lebanese attack after missiles were fired into northern Israel on Saturday morning, a day after it was sworn in intensively to increase its operations in Gaza.
The Israeli army said the missiles targeted the Israeli town of Metola. This is the second time the missiles have been fired from Lebanon since December, worried about whether the delicate ceasefire with Hezbollah’s Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began launching missiles, drones and missiles into Israel a day after Hamas attacked the fighting there on October 7, 2023 in Gaza. The Israeli-Heabullah conflict studied in September and was in a nationwide war, when Israel waged a large wave of air strikes and killed most of its senior leaders. More than 4,000 people were killed and about 60,000 Israelis displaced in Lebanon.
Under the ceasefire, which reached there in November, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from the entire Lebanese territory by the end of January. The deadline was then extended by February 18 by an agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
But since then, Israel has remained in five places in Lebanon, which has carried out dozens of air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it has attacked Hezbollah’s targets. Lebanon has called on the United Nations to put pressure on Israel to withdraw completely from the country.
On Saturday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the country would not allow Lebanon to shoot at Israeli communities. “We have promised the security of the community and that will happen completely,” he said.
There was no immediate statement by Hezbollah.
In a statement, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called on the Lebanese army to take all necessary measures in the south, but said the country did not want to return to war.
The strikes come a day after Israel announced that it would “more density” operations until Hamas released the 59 hostages, 24 of whom believe it.
The Israeli army said Friday it had planned to attack three neighborhoods west of Gaza and warned Palestinians to evacuate the areas.
On Friday, Israel also blew up the only special cancer hospital in war. The Israeli army said the hospital that had taken a friendly hospital in Turkey and the Palestinians and accused Hamas fighters of working at the workplace. Turkey, which helped build and provide the hospital’s budget, says Israeli troops used it as a base at a point.
About 600 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of this week when Israel resumed the war. Israel had previously cut food, fuel and humanitarian aid to nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, in order to put pressure on Hamas on the ceasefire talks.
The international community has condemned the attacks that have resumed. In a statement on Friday, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany called Israeli strikes in Gaza a dramatic step back. “We are shocked by the civilian casualties and urgently call for an immediate return to the ceasefire,” a joint statement said in a joint statement.
In 2023, Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been released from a ceasefire or other contract agreement. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens of others.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli retaliatory attack has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians. He does not say how many people were armed, but say more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed nearly 20,000 fighters without giving evidence.
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The Medinic announced in Tel Aviv in Israel. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grishab in Berlin participated in the report.
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