DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Israel pressed forward on two fronts Wednesday, pursuing a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. As Israel vowed to retaliate for Iran’s ballistic missile attack a day earlier, the region braced for further escalation.
Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and the Hamas militants who run the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip, launched dozens of missiles into Israel on Tuesday night, a sharp escalation that pushed the Middle East closer toward a regional war. Israel warned that the attack would have “repercussions.”
The Israeli military said seven soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in southern Lebanon, without elaborating. Those deaths followed an earlier announcement of the first Israeli combat death in Lebanon since the start of the incursion — a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade. Another seven troops were wounded. Together, the assaults announced on the eve of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, were some of the deadliest against Israeli forces in months. In Gaza, where the nearly yearlong war that triggered the widening conflict rages with no end in sight, Israeli ground and air operations in a hard-hit city killed at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said. And late Wednesday night, an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building near the Lebanese capital’s city center, the second time Israel has struck central Beirut this week. At least two people were killed and 11 wounded in the strike in the residential Bashoura district. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station said it targeted the militant group’s health unit.
The latest actions on multiple fronts have raised fears of a wider conflict that could draw in Iran as well as the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel. Meanwhile, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Damascus Wednesday evening, killing three people and wounding at least three others. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the missile appeared to have targeted the bottom floor of a four-story apartment building.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, which frequently hits targets linked to Iran or allied groups in Syria, but rarely claims the strikes… Source: ctvnews.ca/
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
