News Desk, Bangladesh Global: Israel bombed Gaza on Friday as exchanges of fire and threats over the Lebanon border raised fears of wider war.
Five municipal workers died “during an Israeli bombing” of a garage in Gaza City, said Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
In southern Gaza, AFPTV captured an overnight strike on a residential district of Khan Yunis city. A ball of fire and sparks flared, followed by grey smoke before residents inspected damage in the dusty darkness.
Just before midnight Thursday, Israel’s army said it had “successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon.”
Early Friday, Lebanese official media reported fresh Israeli strikes in the country’s south.
This came after Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement said it fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli barracks in northern Israel on Thursday in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon.
One of the group’s operatives was killed in that strike, Israel said.
Hezbollah claimed several other attacks on Thursday.
The Israeli military said its jets had struck Hezbollah sites and had fired artillery “to remove threats in multiple areas in southern Lebanon.”
Experts are divided on the prospect of a wider war, almost nine months into Israel’s campaign to eradicate Iran-backed Hezbollah’s ally Hamas, the Palestinian group in Gaza.
Exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated in recent weeks and the Israeli military said Tuesday that plans for an offensive in Lebanon “were approved and validated.”
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” in a war, and also threatened nearby European Union member Cyprus.
The United States has appealed for de-escalation.
Bangladesh Global/FR
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