The Latest | Hezbollah launches rockets into Israel after an Israeli strike kills 7 in Lebanon
Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches and said they were in response to an Israeli airstrike on a paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon that killed seven of its members overnight.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. There has been near-daily violence, mostly confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his government will not accept Hamas’ “delusional” conditions for a cease-fire in Gaza. The militant group rejected the latest truce proposal because it says Israel is ignoring the group's core demands: an end to the war and Israel's full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel seeks to destroy Hamas and to recover all of the approximately 100 Israeli hostages still in Gaza, as well as the remains of some 30 others.
Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and another 250 people abducted when militants launched a surprise attack out of Gaza on Oct. 7, triggering the war.
More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 74,000 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tally. The ministry says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Currently:
— Israel and Hamas dig in as pressure builds for a cease-fire in Gaza.
— With its soldiers mired in Gaza, Israel is also fighting over drafting the ultra-Orthodox.
— They fled kibbutzim after Hamas attacked. Now, many Israelis must decide whether to go back.
— Seven Lebanese and an Israeli are killed in an exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border.
— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here's the latest:
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says its forces killed three Palestinian militants during an overnight raid in the West Bank.
The military said it opened fire on militants who hurled explosive devices, killing one of them. It said an airstrike killed two other militants, and that its forces destroyed a vehicle containing explosive devices after arresting two people who were inside it.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said two of those killed were 19 years old. It says another four Palestinians were wounded in the raid, which occurred overnight into Wednesday. It did not say whether any of those killed or wounded were militants or civilians.
Violence across the West Bank has spiked since the war in Gaza broke out on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants launched an incursion on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 others.
The raid was carried out in the Jenin refugee camp, which has seen regular clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in recent years. The dense, urban camp was built to house Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel who fled or were driven out during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has little control over Jenin.
At least 450 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the conflict broke out, according to Palestinian health officials.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel Rescue Services said that one person was killed and two others lightly injured in a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel. The man, 25, was killed from a fire that broke out at a factory in an industrial park in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona as a result of a direct hit.
Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Wednesday morning, according to the Israeli military. Hezbollah took responsibility for the launches and said they were in response to an Israeli airstrike that killed seven members of a militant group in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. There has been near-daily violence, mostly confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. More than 200 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on a paramedic center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early Wednesday.
The airstrike on the village of Hebbariye hit an office of the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps overnight, according to the Lebanese Ambulance Association. The strike was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the Lebanon-Israel border more than five months ago.
“This condemned crime forms a flagrant violation against humanitarian work,” the association said in a statement. It listed the names of the seven volunteers who were killed in the strike.
The militant Hezbollah group vowed to avenge the attack, saying it “will not pass without punishment."
The Israeli military said it struck “a military building” in Hebbariye and killed a member of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group. It said the man was involved in carrying out attacks against Israel and several other militants were killed with him as well.
Since the Israel-Hamas began on Oct. 7, Hezbollah has been carrying attacks against Israel’s military posts along the border. Israel has since carried out scores of airstrikes, mostly along the borde,r but since late February they have started attacking northeast Lebanon.
