- By Robert Greenall
- BBC News
March 27, 2024
Lebanese sources say a relief center was targeted in the Habbariyeh strike
Hezbollah has fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, killing one person, in response to deadly Israeli strikes on a Lebanese village.
Lebanese sources said seven people were killed in the Israeli attack overnight on Habbariyeh, making it one of the deadliest in recent violence.
Israel said militants were killed, including one involved in attacks on Israel.
The Lebanese group targeted said those killed were “rescuers”.
Later on Wednesday Lebanese media reported that several people had been killed in further Israeli strikes. Israel has not yet commented.
The strikes come as Israel and Hezbollah trade almost daily strikes across the border, which began with the start of the Israel-Gaza war following the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group with close ties to Iran and an ally of Hamas.
One of the rockets targeting Kiryat Shmona hit an industrial site
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and a military base there on Wednesday morning.
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said a factory worker was pulled from wreckage after one of the strikes hit an industrial park triggering a fire.
He had severe wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, it added.
Hezbollah said the rocket attacks were “in response to the massacre in Habbariyeh”.
Lebanese officials said the strikes on the village had hit an emergency and relief center for Jamaa Islamiya, a Sunni Muslim group with links to Hamas.
The Lebanese Ambulance Association, quoted by the Associated Press, called the strike a “flagrant violation of humanitarian work”.
The Israel Defense Forces described the target as a “military compound”.
They said: “A significant terrorist operative belonging to the Jamaa Islamiya organization who advanced attacks against Israeli territory was eliminated along with additional terrorists who were with him.”
According to UN figures from before the latest attacks, 316 people have been killed in Lebanon since the conflict began, at least 54 of them civilians.
Up to 20 have lost their lives on the Israeli side, around half of them civilians.
