Missile fire from Lebanon wounds a utility work crew in northern Israel as the front heats up

JERUSALEM (AP) — Lebanese Hezbollah militants fired antitank missiles at an Israeli community just over the border on Sunday, Israeli officials said, badly wounding utility workers as multiplying attacks from Lebanon threatened to escalate into another front in the Mideast’s latest war. The Israeli military said it was striking the origin of the launch with artillery fire. The Israel Electric Corp. said workers in the rural community of Dovev were wounded while repairing lines damaged in a previous attack. Israeli media reported that six people were wounded, including one critically. Hezbollah said it launched guided missiles against a “logistical force belonging to the occupation army that was about to install transmission poles and eavesdropping and spying devices near the Dovev barracks.” It said it hit an Israeli military bulldozer in a separate strike. Shortly after the attack, air raid sirens were heard in northern Israel. Army Radio reported that another antitank missile had been fired from Lebanon. The assault was the most serious incident involving civilians since an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon on Nov. 5 killed a woman and three children.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants and their allies have been clashing along the border since the Israel-Hamas war started five weeks ago with a bloody incursion into southern Israel by Hezbollah ally Hamas. While largely contained, clashes have increased in intensity as Israel conducts a ground offensive in Gaza against Hamas. Earlier Sunday, the military reported that it struck a militant cell in Lebanon that intended to open fire toward Israeli territory. Overnight, Israel said a military drone struck a militant cell that tried to launch antitank missiles at northern Israel, near the town of Metula. Also Sunday, the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, said one of its peacekeepers had been wounded by gunfire overnight near the Lebanese town of al-Qawza. It was not immediately clear where the shooting had come from or whether the peacekeepers were targeted or caught in crossfire. UNIFIL said it was investigating.