KIRYAT SHMONA, ISRAEL – The Israeli military announced plans to evacuate the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday, after days of clashes with Hezbollah fighters along the border with Lebanon.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah and allied Palestinian factions have traded cross-border fire with Israel for days, after Hamas fighters attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7.
Hamas have killed at least 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
More than 4,130 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in retaliatory Israeli bombardments, according to figures from its Hamas-run health ministry.
Israeli authorities have been steadily evacuating communities near the Gaza border and along the country’s northern frontier.
On Friday, the military said it informed the mayor of Kiryat Shmona that the city is the next on the list.
“The plan will be managed by the local authority, the ministry of tourism and the ministry of defense,” an army statement said.
The military said it was continuing to strike Hezbollah targets just across the border in Lebanon.
“Twenty launches were identified from Lebanon toward Israeli territory” on Friday, the military said.
Anti-tank missiles and gunfire also targeted Israeli army positions. Troops responded with air strikes, artillery bombardments and sniper fire, the military said.
Hezbollah said it had struck several Israeli positions in the border area, some with guided missiles.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, at least 22 people have been killed in south Lebanon.
Most of them have been combatants, but at least four civilians, including a Reuters journalist, have been killed. At least three people have been killed in Israel.
The Hezbollah, Lebanon’s only armed faction that did not disarm after the 1975-1990 civil war, last fought a major conflict with Israel in 2006.
That war left more than 1,200 dead in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel, mostly soldiers, in a conflict that left deep scars and the border bristling with guns.