Israel's wars with Iranian-backed groups continue, with rockets killing seven people in Israel and IDF airstrikes in Syria

Tel Aviv, Israel – Rocket fire from Lebanon killed at least seven people in northern Israel on Thursday, including four foreign workers, in the deadliest such attack since Israel's invasion earlier this month. The attacks on two separate locations came as senior U.S. diplomats were in the region to push for ceasefires in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, hoping to end the raging wars between Israel and Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East in recent months of the Biden administration.

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group has been firing rockets, drones and missiles at Israel daily and carrying out retaliatory strikes since Hamas launched its terror attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023 the war there.

Hezbollah and Hamas are ideological allies and both have long been considered Iranian proxy groups – and designated as terrorist organizations by the United States, Israel and many other countries.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said on Thursday that it had carried out airstrikes on targets near Qusair, a town in western Syria near the border with Lebanon. It claimed that Hezbollah had recently begun stockpiling weapons to smuggle into Lebanon. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked border crossings between Lebanon and Syria, claiming they serve as arms smuggling routes.

At least five people were killed in Thursday's attacks, according to Syrian news agency reports.

The conflict along Israel's northern border escalated last month when the IDF launched a wave of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and Lebanon Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's supreme leader, was killedand most of his deputies. At the beginning of October, Israeli ground troops entered Lebanon. Since then, nearly two dozen Israeli forces have been killed in Lebanon, while Lebanese health authorities say the airstrikes have killed about 2,000 people across the country.

The Metula regional council in northern Israel reported the first rocket attack on Thursday, killing five people, without specifying the number or type of projectiles used.

The nationality of the four workers killed in this attack was also not initially known. Metula, Israel's northernmost city, is surrounded on three sides by Lebanon and has been heavily damaged by rockets. The town's residents were evacuated in October 2023 and only security officers and farm workers remain there.

The Refugee and Migrant Hotline, an organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work at the border without adequate protection. Agricultural areas along the Israeli border, where much of the country's orchards are located, are militarily restricted areas that can only be entered with official permission.

Not long after that attack, Magen David Adom, Israel's main emergency medical organization, said medics had confirmed the deaths of a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman in a suburb of the northern city of Haifa. They also treated two other people who suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital. According to the Israeli military, as part of this salvo, around 25 rockets from Lebanon hit Israel and hit an olive grove where people had gathered to harvest.

That of Hezbollah newly appointed top leader, Sheikh Naim Qassemsaid in a video statement on Wednesday that the militant group would continue to fight Israel until it was offered ceasefire terms it considered acceptable. He said it had recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including Attacks with explosive pagers and walkie-talkies which were widely blamed on Israel.

“Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.

According to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency, the Israeli military warned people early Thursday to evacuate more areas in southern Lebanon as airstrikes in various parts of the country killed eight people. Israel has warned people to evacuate large parts of the country, including major cities in the south and east.

According to the Lebanese government, more than 2,800 people have been killed and nearly 13,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began more than a year ago, and around 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes.

In Israel, Hezbollah rockets, missiles and drones have killed at least 68 people, about half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis from towns along the border have been evacuated from their homes for more than a year.

The United States and other mediating nations have floated new proposals to resolve regional conflicts in the final months of the Biden administration. Negotiations on both fronts have been stalled for months and neither warring party has shown any signs of backing down from their demands.

Senior White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were both back in Israel on Thursday to discuss possible ceasefires and the release of Hamas hostages. CIA Director Bill Burns was scheduled to visit Egypt to discuss these efforts.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with McGurk and Hochstein, his office confirmed in a statement. He said the Israeli leader “thanked our American friends for their efforts” but “made it clear that the main issue is not the paperwork of this or that agreement, but just Israel's determination to enforce the agreement and any threat to its security from the to thwart Lebanon.”

A proposal to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah calls for a two-month ceasefire during which Israeli forces would withdraw from Lebanon and Hezbollah would end its armed presence along the country's southern border, two officials familiar with the talks told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

But Israel is unlikely to trust UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops – both of whom it accuses of failing to stop Hezbollah from entrenching itself in the region over the past decade – to keep Hezbollah from a buffer zone which it has now re-established in southern Lebanon. She wants the freedom to attack the militants if necessary. Lebanese officials want a complete withdrawal.

Separately, the USA Egypt and Qatar have proposed a four-week ceasefire in Gaza in which Hamas would release up to 10 hostages, according to an Egyptian official and a Western diplomat.

But Hamas still appears unwilling to release scores of hostages without ensuring a more permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, even after the assassination of its top leader Yahya Sinwar. Prime Minister Netanyahu has insisted on permanent Israeli control over parts of the territory.