Thais killed near Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli jets pound Beirut suburbs

Seven civilians killed in rocket fire from Lebanon as Israeli forces conduct deadly air raids on Beirut.

Four Thai agricultural workers have been killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel, as the Israeli military hit Lebanon’s capital with multiple air strikes.

Posting on social media platform X on Friday, Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths close to the town of Metula on Thursday, adding that another Thai citizen was injured.

“Thailand continues to strongly urge all parties to return to the path of peace, in the name of the innocent civilians gravely impacted by this prolonged and deepening conflict,” Maris added.

Israeli medics said late on Thursday that three Israeli civilians were also killed in the rocket barrages from Lebanon, the deadliest cross-border attacks since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated in August.

An estimated 30,000 Thai nationals live in Israel, where salaries are much higher than in the Southeast Asian country.

Thai nationals in Israel have been hit since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza last October. More than two dozen Thais were believed to have been captured during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that month, and 23 were released from captivity during a brief truce in November 2023.

The Israeli army had said two other Thai nationals died in captivity in Gaza in May.

While there were near-daily cross-border attacks between Israel and Hezbollah since the Gaza war started, Israel intensified its air attacks and killings of Hezbollah leaders as the war entered its second year.

In Lebanon, at least 2,865 people have been killed and 13,047 wounded in Israeli attacks since the war on Gaza began, with 45 people killed across the country in the past 24 hours, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

On Friday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli fighter jets hit at least 10 targets in several neighbourhoods south of the capital Beirut, resulting in casualties.

“The raids left massive destruction in the targeted areas, as dozens of buildings were levelled to the ground, in addition to the outbreak of fires,” NNA said.

Lebanese media said at least two people were killed and four injured in the Israeli attacks.

Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the strikes followed another “failed diplomatic attempt” to end the fighting, as top United States officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk were in Israel on Thursday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Usually, when they hold talks in Israel, they visit Beirut afterwards. This time they did not, which is really a clear indication that there is no progress or breakthrough,” Khodr said.

The Israeli military has continued to issue forced displacement orders in Lebanon, including for the entire city of Baalbek in the east, rendering tens of thousands of people homeless.

“It is a strategy – displacement. It’s a form of pressure, just like these air strikes,” Khodr said.

Israeli first responders carry the shrouded body of a woman who was killed when a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an area in northern Israel’s Haifa district [Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]

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Al Jazeera and news agencies