Hezbollah strikes north Israel in response to 'Naqoura massacre'

Hezbollah attacked Thursday two settlements in northern Israel in retaliation to what it called a "massacre" on the southern border town of Naqoura.

The group said it targeted the Shlomi and Goren settlements in response to the attacks on civilians and especially the Israeli strikes on Naqoura and Tayr Harfa that killed Hezbollah and Amal paramedics.

Four of Hezbollah fighters and two rescuers were killed Wednesday and three members of the Amal movement, including a rescuer. An earlier Israeli airstrike had hit a paramedic center affiliated with the Islamic Group (Jamaa Islamiya), killing seven of its members in the village of Hebariyeh, making Wednesday the deadliest day in more than five months of fighting along the border.

Later on Thursday, Hezbollah targeted a "newly created" command center in Liman in support of Gaza.

The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war. The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.

Hezbollah began launching rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8, the day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in a surprise attack that sparked the crushing war in Gaza.