BEIRUT (AP) — The Israeli military on Thursday warned people to evacuate a town and other communities in southern Lebanon that lie north of a U.N.-declared buffer zone, signaling that it was resuming a ground operation against the people that began earlier this week Hezbollah militant group could expand.

Israel urged people to leave Nabatea, a provincial capital, and other communities north of the Litani River, which formed the northern edge of the border zone established by the U.N. Security Council in a resolution adopted by both sides after the 2006 war accuse the other of the violation.

At least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it said was a limited ground offensive earlier this week. The region, meanwhile, prepared for the Israeli retaliation that would follow An Iranian ballistic missile attack.

Attacks kill and injure first responders

The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli attack injured four of its medics and killed a Lebanese army soldier as they evacuated wounded people from the south. It said the convoy near the village of Taybeh, which was accompanied by Lebanese troops, was targeted on Thursday despite coordinating its movements with U.N. peacekeepers. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut late Wednesday killed nine people, including seven civilian first responders who were close to Hezbollah. Israel has been attacking areas of the country where the militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck the heart of the capital.

There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit an apartment not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, a total of nine people were killed.

Residents reported a sulfur-like smell after the attack in Beirut, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs without providing evidence. Human rights groups have done this in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary grenades over towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hezbollah has an armed wing with tens of thousands of fighters, but also a political movement and a network of charities with civilians.

Israel says it has killed a senior Hamas leader in Gaza

Escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second front in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militants that began nearly a year ago Hamas surprise attack on October 7th from the Gaza Strip to Israel.

The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip about three months ago. It said Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders were killed in an attack on an underground compound in northern Gaza.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Mushtaha was a close confidant of Yahya Sinwar, the top Hamas leader who planned the October 7 attack. Sinwar is believed to be alive and hiding in the Gaza Strip.

Fighting is escalating in southern Lebanon

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have resulted in deaths in recent weeks Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, hundreds of additional airstrikes on large parts of Lebanon have killed at least 1,276 people since mid-September.

The Israeli military said Thursday it had struck around 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons depots and observation posts. It said at least 15 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the attacks. There was no independent confirmation.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homesas Israel has warned people to evacuate from about 50 villages and towns in the south, telling them to relocate to areas about 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and significantly further north than the Litani River.

According to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the months-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the militants should withdraw north of the Litani and Lebanese forces should patrol the border region along with UN peacekeepers.

Israel says Hezbollah has remained in the zone and has built extensive military infrastructure in towns and villages along the border, while Lebanon has accused Israel of violating other parts of the resolution.

After nearly a year of rocket attacks that began Oct. 8 and displaced about 60,000 Israelis from communities in the north, Israel says it has targeted Hezbollah. Israel carried out retaliatory strikes last year that displaced tens of thousands on the Lebanese side.

The vast majority of recent attacks have taken place in areas where Hezbollah has a large presence, including Beirut’s southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh. But Israel has also carried out attacks on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and an attack in central Beirut earlier this week killed three members of a left-wing Palestinian militant group.

After the Iranian missile attack, fears of a larger war are increasing

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they fired two drones into Tel Aviv overnight. The military said it identified two drones off the coast of the busy metropolitan area and shot down one while the other crashed in the Mediterranean.

Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are part of the Iranian-led axis of resistance, which also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq. They have launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians, retaliating in a cycle that has repeatedly threatened the threat of larger war.

After the Iranian missile attack on Tuesday, the region appears to be on the brink of such a conflict again. It was widely said to be in response to the assassinations of Nasrallah, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader who died in an explosion in Tehran in July Israel was blamed.

Both Israel and the United States have said the rocket attack, which slightly injured two people and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, will have serious consequences. The United States has sent military assets to the region in support of Israel.

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This story has been corrected to show that the four Red Cross medics were wounded, not killed, in an Israeli attack.

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Jeffery reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Zeina Karam in London contributed to this report.

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