Lebanon’s State Media Says Israeli Strikes There Killed 10 Civilians
The death toll Wednesday was the highest in months of cross-border fighting, and amplified fears that the cross-border clashes could escalate into a full-fledged war.
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Rescuers on Thursday at a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh that was hit in a strike.Credit...Mahmoud Zayyat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel’s military launched new attacks on targets in Lebanon on Thursday, a day after its strikes in southern Lebanon that according to Lebanese state media killed at least 10 civilians, the most in months of cross-border fighting.
The strikes — which came in response to a rocket attack from Lebanon on Wednesday that killed one Israeli soldier and wounded eight other people — amplified fears that months of cross-border clashes could escalate into a full-fledged war.
Lebanon’s state media reported on Thursday that among the 10 civilians killed in the Israeli strikes were seven members of one family in the city of Nabatieh. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, on Thursday condemned the Israeli military’s “aggression” and requested that an urgent complaint against Israel be brought before the United Nations Security Council, according to a statement from his office.
Israel’s military later said that its fighter jets had carried out more strikes inside Lebanon against targets belonging to Hezbollah, the powerful militia that is an ally of Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in intense cross-border strikes since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7.
Since Wednesday, Hezbollah has announced the deaths of at least 10 of its fighters, although it has not specified when or where they had died. Israel’s military said that one was a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force that had been killed by Israeli strikes on Wednesday; the group confirmed the man’s death but did not describe his position.
The escalations have reignited fears that another front could open in Israel’s war against Hamas. Hezbollah has vowed to respond to the Israeli strikes — and Israeli leaders have signaled that they, too, were prepared to fight.
“We have no interest in war, but we must prepare,” Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said in videotaped remarks released on Thursday.
Mr. Gallant said earlier on Thursday that he had spoken to the American defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, about the “ongoing threats and attacks” from Hezbollah.
The United States is one of several countries that have been involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the cross-border tensions.
