Two Israelis killed in Hezbollah rocket attack

Around 20 rockets were fired at the city on Wednesday, the Israeli military said.

A man and a woman were killed in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona after it was hit by a rocket barrage from Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s ambulance service said.

The deaths follow a spate of rocket fire over the past few days as Hezbollah responds to Israeli strikes inside Lebanon.

“We found a man and a woman, aged around 40 years old, unconscious and injured by shrapnel. We carried out medical examinations, but their injuries were serious and we had to declare them dead on the spot,” added emergency service provider Magen David Adom in a statement.

The Fire and Rescue Service noted that the impacts have started fires in several buildings in the city, with five teams working to put them out.

It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanon it could face destruction like the Gaza Strip.

The escalation in Lebanon, after a year of war in the the besieged enclave, has raised fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could suck in Iran and Israel’s iron-clad ally the United States.

Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 2,100 people, most of them in the last two weeks.

It has also forced 1.2 million people from their homes, officials have reported.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Qassem stated the Lebanese group’s ability to resist Israel’s military is intact after a series of attacks and assassinations by the Zionist regime.

“Our military capabilities are fine. What our enemies say about our fighting capabilities is an illusion. They are lying. Our fighters on the frontline are solid,” Sheikh Qassem stressed.

“What happened over the last 10 days is [that] the pain of the Israelis is increasing. We are telling them, more and more Israelis will be displaced from the settlements. The Israeli plan is to kill Lebanese civilians and empty villages to cause chaos. But I tell them, your efforts are a failure,” he added.