TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli medics said four foreign workers and three Israelis were killed in rocket attacks from Lebanon into northern Israel on Thursday; this was the deadliest cross-border attack since Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel on Thursday continued airstrikes that it said targeted Hezbollah militants across Lebanon, where health officials said 24 people were killed.

US diplomats were in the region Pressing for ceasefire in Lebanon and GazaI hope to calm down Wars in the Middle East As the Biden administration enters its final months. It increases before printing US election next week.

Israeli forces struck one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, destroying much-needed supplies the World Health Organization had delivered to the facility, the UN agency said. The director of the hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya said the attacks caused a fire that affected the dialysis unit, water tanks were destroyed, the operating room building was damaged and four paramedics who tried to extinguish the fire were injured.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on last week’s raid on the hospital, claiming it was harboring Hamas militants. The Gaza Ministry of Health on Thursday condemned Israeli attacks on the hospital and called on the international community to protect medical facilities in Gaza.

Back-to-back deadly rocket attacks on Israel

Bullets from Lebanon hit an agricultural field in Metula, Israel’s northernmost town, killing four Thai workers and an Israeli farmer, officials said.

Hours later, the Israeli military said a volley of about 25 rockets from Lebanon hit an olive grove in a suburb of the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. Magen David Adom, Israel’s main emergency medical provider, said a 30-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman died and two others were injured in the attack.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are supported by Israel’s regional enemy, Iran. Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for Thursday’s rocket attack. The Israeli military said 90 shells were fired from Lebanon on Thursday.

Hezbollah has been firing thousands of rockets, drones and missiles at Israel since Hamas’ attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, triggering Israel’s devastating war in the Palestinian region, and has been subjected to fierce Israeli retaliatory attacks.

Metula residents were evacuated in October 2023, leaving only security guards and agricultural workers.

Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said in social media posts on Friday that in addition to the four Thais killed by rocket fire, another Thai agricultural worker was also injured. Maris called on all parties to return to the path of peace on behalf of civilians harmed by the ongoing conflict.

The Helpline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israeli organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities were putting them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without proper protection.

Agricultural areas near the Israeli border are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission. For the few remaining residents, the thud of interceptions from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and the sound of air raid sirens interrupt daily life.

However, local authorities largely support the continuation of the ground operation in southern Lebanon.

“If the Israeli government accepts a deal brought by the (Biden administration) … we will not accept it because for us it means rehabilitating Hezbollah on our borders,” said Eitan Davidi, mayor of the northern town of Margaliot.

Following evacuation warnings, Israel bombed Lebanon

Israeli strikes killed 24 people in Lebanon on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News agency, a day after the Israeli army warned residents there to evacuate; among them were 13 people in the country’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

The warnings caused thousands of people to flee and spread panic in the city known for its massive Roman ruins.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that 45 people died and 110 people were injured in Israeli bombardments in various parts of the country in the last 24 hours.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar district in the Bekaa Valley, said Israeli airstrikes that hit the area had turned the main highway into a “parking lot” of cars stuck in traffic.

About 12,000 displaced people remain in the area, he said, and most have taken shelter in private homes. Families with luggage continued to arrive at one of the shelters in Deir al-Ahmar on Thursday.

“Our houses were destroyed,” said Zahraa Yunus from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing; no clothes or anything.”

US officials seek ceasefire in the region

Senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein were in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials about the clashes with Hamas and Hezbollah.

The meetings focused on efforts to secure a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon and consideration of new proposals made by mediators to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to a U.S. official familiar with the planning of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. He was not authorized to comment publicly. In addition to Netanyahu, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant also attended the meetings; David Barnea, director of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; and other officials.

But with the US election on Tuesday, hopes for immediate progress appeared distant; especially in Gaza, where Israel has faced criticism for not sending more humanitarian aid to the besieged north.

Death toll as of: more than a year Palestinian health officials reported that the number of fighting in Gaza exceeded 43,000 earlier this week.

Awda Hospital in central Gaza said late Thursday that it had received the bodies of 16 people killed when Israel bombed two houses in the Nuseyrat refugee camp. The hospital said more than 30 people were injured, including a doctor and two journalists.

Last year, Israel’s expanding campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon killed 2,865 people there, injured more than 13,000 and devastated Lebanese towns near the border.

Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since Israel escalated the conflict into an all-out war last month. wave of heavy air strikes Killed the senior leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallahand most of the MPs.

Over the course of a year, Hezbollah’s rocket attacks forced the evacuation of 60,000 Israelis from near the border.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Tawil from Deir al-Ahmar, Lebanon. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington and Eleanor H. Reich in New York contributed to this report.

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