JERUSALEM – Rocket fire from Lebanon killed five people in northern Israel on Thursday, including four foreign workers, in the deadliest such attack since Israel’s invasion earlier this month.

The attack occurred while senior US diplomats were in the region. push for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gazahoping to end wars in the Middle East in the final months of the Biden administration.

The militant group Hezbollah has been firing rockets, drones and missiles at Israel, and provoking retaliatory strikes, since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack from the Gaza Strip sparked the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies backed by Iran.

The conflict along the border escalated into a full-blown war last month, when Israel launched a wave of intense airstrikes across Lebanon, killing Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his followers. attached. Israeli ground forces advanced into Lebanon in early October.

The Metula regional council reported Thursday’s attack, without detailing the number or type of projectiles used. The nationalities of the workers were also not immediately known.

Metula, Israel’s northernmost city, surrounded by Lebanon on three sides, has suffered severe damage from rockets. The city’s residents were evacuated in October 2023 and only security officials and agricultural workers remain.

The Refugee and Migrant Hotline, an organization that advocates for foreign workers, said authorities had put them in danger by allowing them to work along the border without adequate protection.

The agricultural areas along Israel’s border, where many of the country’s orchards are located, are closed military zones that can only be entered with official permission.

Hezbollah’s newly appointed top leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in a video statement Wednesday that the militant group will continue fighting Israel until it is offered ceasefire conditions it deems acceptable. He said he has recovered from a series of setbacks in recent months, including attacks with explosive pagers and walkie-talkies of that was widely attributed to Israel.

“Hezbollah’s capabilities are still available and compatible with a long war,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military warned people to evacuate more areas of southern Lebanon as airstrikes in different parts of the country killed eight people, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Israel has warned people to evacuate large areas of the country, including major cities in the south and east. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced since the September escalation.

Thousands of people have fled Baalbek, the main city in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, and surrounding areas following evacuation warnings and Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday.

Jean Fakhry, a local official in the Deir al-Ahmar region, about 17 kilometers (10 miles) to the southeast, said the main road “turned into a parking lot.” He said around 12,000 displaced people are in the area, and most are staying in private homes.

On Thursday, families with luggage were still arriving at one of the shelters.

“Our houses were destroyed,” said Zahraa Younis, from the village near Baalbek. “We came with nothing, no clothes or anything else, and we took refuge here.”

According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, more than 2,800 people have been killed and almost 13,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began last year.

In Israel, rockets, missiles and drones launched by Hezbollah have killed at least 68 people, about half of them soldiers. More than 60,000 Israelis from towns and cities along the border have been evacuated from their homes for more than a year.

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Frankel reported from Jerusalem and Tawil from Deir al-Ahmar, Lebanon.

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