BEIRUT — Israel on Wednesday launched its longest and heaviest attack on neighboring Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war, striking several locations in the south, killing at least one Hezbollah fighter and three civilians, and raising further the specter of war between the two long-standing enemies.
Israeli fighter jets began “an extensive wave of attacks in Lebanese territory,” Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari announced as the strikes were underway, saying details were to follow.
The action followed a morning attack launched from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Safed that struck a house and an Israel Defense Forces base. One Israeli woman was killed and at least eight people were wounded, said Ilana Stein, a spokesperson for the National Public Diplomacy Directorate. She blamed Hezbollah rocket fire. “This can no longer be our reality,” she said.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-aligned paramilitary that is also Lebanon’s most powerful political group, did not immediately claim responsibility.
Hezbollah has joined an array of groups that say they’re supporting Hamas by striking Israel and, in some cases, U.S. interests in the region since Oct. 7.
That’s the day Hamas launched its bloody blitz into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 more back to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Israel has responded with a military campaign it says is aimed at eradicating Hamas and other fighters from the enclave. It has killed more than 28,000 people there.
Since Oct. 7, rockets have flown across the non-demarcated border area between Lebanon and Israel almost daily. Approximately 170 Hezbollah members have been killed, according to a tally based on the group’s death announcements.
The Lebanese state news agency NNA identified the civilians killed Wednesday as a Syrian mother, her 2-year-old son and her 13-year-old stepson. Their bodies were extracted from under the rubble of their destroyed house.
Tens of thousands of residents of south Lebanon and northern Israel have fled their homes over the past four months, largely emptying the region. Casualties have been almost entirely limited to combatants; civilian deaths have been rare.
As fighting has intensified and strikes have hit deeper into both countries, diplomats from the United States, Britain, France and the European Union have descended on Lebanon in efforts to head off a full-scale war. Israeli officials has warned repeatedly, both in public statements and privately to allies, that time for diplomacy is running out.
Israel warned Washington in late December that if a long-term border agreement weren’t reached soon, Israel would escalate its fight with Hezbollah. Officials familiar with the talks understood at the time that the end of January was a soft deadline for the sides to reach an agreement.
Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah on Jan. 5 broached for the first time the possibility of finally demarcating the line between the two countries — a step that the United States, other Western governments and the United Nations have been advocating for years.
But Nasrallah has made clear that discussions would not take place before a cease-fire in Gaza.
France this week delivered a proposal to the Lebanese government that emphasized the importance of implementing a U.N. resolution that directs armed personnel, assets and weapons not belonging to the Lebanese government or U.N. peacekeeping troops to withdraw some 25 miles from the border.
But discussions for a cease-fire on the border are “the same as before,” according to a European diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation. Talks weren’t at a stalemate, he said, “they’re nonexistent” — Hezbollah won’t engage in discussion while the war in Gaza continues.
Nasrallah said Tuesday that diplomats visiting Lebanon are clearly prioritizing the security of Israel and parroting its demands.
“These delegations … are trying to intimidate,” he said in a televised address. One delegation, he said, warned last month that Israel would launch a war within two days.
“This party of intimidation … will not work,” Nasrallah said. “Now if we stop fighting in the south, what [will happen] to Gaza?”
But word on the negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza, the European diplomat said, “is not good.” Progress in the talks brokered by the Qatari and Egyptian governments, he said, has been slowed by differences over which Palestinians Israel would release in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.
“There are names [the Israelis] don’t want to consider, including Marwan Barghouti,” the diplomat said, referring to the Fatah-linked paramilitary leader who is serving five life sentences in Israeli prison for the murders of five people.
Even incarcerated, Barghouti, 64, is one of the most popular Palestinian political leaders, respected and admired across the West Bank and Gaza. Members of the international community have tried to convince Israel that Barghouti is the only alternative to Hamas, the European diplomat said, because he is seen as part of the “renewed class in Palestine to take over the current class.”
The attacks Wednesday showed attention is shifting to Lebanon as the war in Gaza slows. It was unclear whether Israel would expand the assault beyond Hezbollah near the border to other Lebanese targets farther north. Low-flying jets above Beirut on Wednesday sparked fears of an oncoming attack.
Israeli minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday threatened such an expansion. “We must be clear: Those responsible for the shooting from Lebanon is not only Hezbollah,” he said, “but also the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese state that allows the shooting to occur from its territory.”
“There is no target or military infrastructure in the northern part of the country that is not in our sights,” he said.
Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Mohamed El Chamma and Suzan Haidamous contributed to this report.