Fears that the conflict in Gaza could spread escalated yesterday after Israeli planes again targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
At least 16 airstrikes hit the Suluki Valley, described by Lebanese sources as the “densest bombardment of a single location” since border area hostilities began three months ago.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks were again in action in northern Gaza, sparking some of the most intense fighting since the New Year when Israel announced it was scaling back its operations.
Despite mounting international pressure to move towards diplomacy, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week vowed that “no one or nothing” would stop Israel in its goal of completely wiping out Hamas.
Israel said its forces had killed dozens of Hamas fighters overnight but the militants continued to fire rockets across the border.
The Gaza health authorities said at least 158 people had been killed, raising the death toll in the enclave to nearly 25,000.
Some of the hundreds of thousands of residents who fled the north earlier in the war had begun returning last week to bombed-out areas where the Israelis had withdrawn.
But yesterday, many said the abrupt resurgence of fighting in the region would now halt plans to try to go home.
“We almost planned to return to our house in Nazla, east of Jabalia, but thank God we didn’t. This morning people living nearby arrived here and told us the tanks pushed back there,” said Abu Khaled, 43, a father of three.
“The sounds of bombing from the tanks, from the planes didn’t stop all night. It reminded us of the first day of the ground incursion,” he added.
Southern Gaza continues to be attacked with Khan Younis and Rafah suffering heavy bombing.
