Firefighters work as they put out a fire at a residential building, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, October 9, 2024
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli emergency responders said two persons were killed on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) in a rocket attack on the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, as the Army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire along the border.

“We found a man and a woman aged around 40 years old, unconscious and injured by shrapnel,” said emergency service provider Magen David Adom in a statement.

“We carried out medical examinations, but their injuries were serious and we had to declare them dead on the spot.”

The incident is the first involving civilian deaths since Israel sent ground troops into southern Lebanon and began targeting Hezbollah positions with regular air strikes on Beirut.

Kiryat Shmona has been declared a closed military zone because of its proximity to the Lebanese border, and is a frequent target of Hezbollah rocket salvos.

The Israeli military said approximately 20 projectile launches were identified crossing from Lebanon after air raid sirens were activated in Kiryat Shmona.

Israel expanded operations in Lebanon nearly a year after Hezbollah began cross-border fire in support of its ally, Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

While battling Hamas in Gaza, Israel has vowed to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by Hezbollah fire to return home.

Hezbollah on Wednesday (October 9, 2024) said its fighters targeted Israeli forces in a south Lebanon border village, shortly after saying Israeli soldiers tried to advance in the area.

Hezbollah fighters “bombed… a gathering of Israeli enemy troops in… Mais al-Jabal with artillery shells”, the Iran-backed group said, after earlier saying that clashes were ongoing after Israeli troops tried to advance in the area “from several directions”.