Foreign national killed in missile strike on Israel's Margaliot
Israeli medics said one foreign worker was killed Monday and at least seven wounded in a missile strike near the Lebanese border, the latest casualties in months of cross-border fire.
An anti-tank missile hit "foreign workers who were working in a plantation", killing one man and wounding at least seven others, including two in serious condition, the Magen David Adom emergency response service said in a statement.
The wounded were all Indian men in their 30s, the statement said, without detailing the nationality of the person killed.
Reporters saw the Israeli army transporting several foreign workers, some limping and bleeding, to ambulances near the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.
The Israeli military said "a number of civilians" were hit by the incoming fire from Lebanon and airlifted to hospital.
The attack occurred near Margaliot, a small agricultural community on the border, the military said, adding that it had "struck the source of the launch" in Lebanon in response.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire nearly every day since the start of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, says it is trying to pin down Israeli forces in the north to aid the Palestinians.
Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Monday’s strike.
The Lebanese group said in statements Monday that it had stopped two attempts by Israeli forces to cross into Lebanese territory overnight and that it had launched an artillery attack on an Israeli barracks and targeted surveillance equipment in a post in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
Also on Monday, U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut to meet with Lebanese officials in an attempt to tamp down tensions.
The near daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Hezbollah fighters and at least 44 civilians in Lebanon. Around 20 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including civilians and soldiers.
Tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border have been forced to flee their homes because of the ongoing fighting. Israel has vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah, even if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, in order to push its fighters away from the border.
Farm workers from Thailand and other Asian countries have flocked to Israel in recent years, drawn by higher wages. Several foreign workers were among those killed and abducted in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza.
Source: Agence France Presse
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