The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed area along the border, killing an Israeli civilian, the group and Israel’s military said on Friday.
Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush injured an Israeli civilian carrying out infrastructure work and he later died from his wounds.
Low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has repeatedly threatened to spill over, as Israel has attacked high-ranking Hezbollah militants in recent months.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border. On the Israeli side, cross-border fighting has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers, while in Lebanon more than 350 people have been killed, including 50 civilians and 271 Hezbollah members.
On Thursday, Palestinian hospital officials said Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip killed at least five people.
More than half of the territory’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has carried out almost daily raids as it prepares for an offensive on the city. The Israeli army has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in the area in what appear to be preparations for an invasion of Rafah.
In central Gaza, four people were killed in shelling by Israeli tanks.
A ship traveling in the Gulf of Aden was attacked on Thursday, officials said, in the latest attack likely carried out by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in connection with the war between Israel and Hamas.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas political official told The Associated Press that the Islamic militant group is willing to accept a truce of five years or more with Israel.
The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by the unprecedented October attack. 7 in southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 hostages. Israel says the militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
The war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, about two-thirds of them children and women.
At the moment:
— A ship is attacked off the coast of Yemen as the Houthi rebel campaign appears to gain new speed.
— Satellite photos show the construction of a new port in the Gaza Strip for the US-led aid operation.
— USC cancels graduation ceremony and dozens are arrested on other campuses as anti-war protests grow.
— Chief José Andrés says aid workers killed by Israeli airstrikes represented ‘the best of humanity’
— A UN report says 282 million people faced acute hunger in 2023, with the worst famine in Gaza.
— An EU military official says a frigate destroyed a drone launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen.
Here’s the latest:
BEIRUT – The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed area along the border, killing an Israeli civilian, the group and the Israeli military said on Friday.
Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles.
The Israeli military said the ambush injured an Israeli civilian carrying out infrastructure work and he later died from his wounds.
The incident took place in a disputed area known in Lebanon as the Kfar Chouba Hills and in Israel as Har Dov. The area was captured by Israel from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war and is part of Syria’s Golan Heights that Israel annexed in 1981. The Lebanese government says the area belongs to Lebanon.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire almost daily along the border since the start of the war in Gaza almost seven months ago. Hezbollah says it is acting in solidarity with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that sparked the war with its deadly Oct. 1 attack. 7 attack on southern Israel.
Low-intensity fighting has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has attacked senior Hezbollah militants in recent months.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
On the Israeli side, cross-border fighting has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers. In Lebanon, more than 350 people have been killed, including 50 civilians and 271 Hezbollah members.