Israeli citizen killed in Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel

JERUSALEM

An Israeli citizen was killed on Wednesday when rockets reportedly fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group hit the settlement of Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, near the border areas with Lebanon.

In a statement, the Israeli ambulance service, Magen David Adom, said the 25-year-old man was a worker in an industrial structure in the settlement and was pronounced dead at the scene when pulled out of the rubble after the attack.

The Israeli Army Radio said his death brings the Israeli deaths from the clashes with the Hezbollah group since Oct. 8 to 18.

The Hezbollah group, for its part, said it struck the Kiryat Shmona settlement and the command base of the Israeli army's Brigade 769, stationed in the vicinity of the settlement, with dozens of rockets.

Hezbollah added that the rockets firing came in response to the Israeli "massacre" in Habbariyeh town, southern Lebanon, early on Wednesday that left seven paramedics killed.

Tension has flared along the border between Lebanon and Israel amid intermittent exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006.

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar