BEIRUT: Two civilians were killed in northern Israel on Sunday after an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit their home in a town near the border, raising new concerns of a second conflict erupting against the backdrop of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The deadly strike came on the 100th day of a conflict between Israel and Hamas that has killed nearly 24,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of Gaza, driven around 85 per cent of its 2.3 million residents from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population into starvation. Also Israeli soldiers exchanged fire with militants attempting to cross from Lebanon into Israel and killed four of them, the Israeli military said.
Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah said the US actions in Yemen and the Red Sea would harm the security of all shipping as the area had now become a conflict zone, saying the Houthis of Yemen would keep up attacks despite US and British strikes.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group is a leading part of an Iran-aligned regional alliance which includes the Houthis, said Houthi targeting of ships belonging to Israel or heading to its ports would continue. “The more dangerous thing is what the Americans did in the Red Sea will harm the security of all maritime navigation, even the ships that are not going to Palestine, even the ships which are not Israeli, because the sea has become a theatre of fighting, missiles, drones and war ships,” he said.
US and British forces on Friday launched dozens of air strikes against Houthi forces in retaliation for attacks on Red Sea shipping. The Houthis have vowed to retaliate.