Israel-Lebanon latest: Israeli soldier group warns Netanyahu ‘red line crossed’ and threatens to stop fighting

Two people were killed in a town in northern Israel that was hit by rocket fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.

Israel’s ambulance service said that a man and a woman had been killed in the town of Kirya Shmona. The military said about 20 projectiles had been launched from Lebanon in the barrage.

The Israeli military said it had destroyed an underground weapons store found seven metres below a residential building in southern Lebanon.

“The soldiers located hundreds of weapons, including an underground weapons storage facility approximately seven metres under a home within the village where the troops are operating,” it said.

“Within the weapons storage facility, the troops discovered sniper rifles and numerous weapons.”

At least six people were wounded, two of them seriously, in a stabbing attack in the Israeli city of Hadera on Wednesday, Israeli authorities said.

“The terrorist has been neutralized,” police said in a statement. “Four separate locations have been identified, resulting in six victims with stab wounds.”

The police did not immediately provide other details, but issued a brief video of the suspected attacker being apprehended.

Of the six people rushed to the hospital, at least two were in serious condition, according to medical officials.

Leaders from the Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement will hold further unity talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official said.

The media adviser of the Hamas political chief, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, according to reports.

It was led by Khalil Al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator and Hamas’ second-in-command, currently based in Qatar.

“The meeting will discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the challenges facing the Palestinian cause,” Hamas officials said.

More than 42,010 Palestinians have been killed and 97,720 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October 2023, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Over 100 Israeli soldiers have threatened to stop fighting if Netanyahu’s government does not secure a hostage release deal.

In a letter addressed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, 130 soldiers said: “If the government does not change course immediately and work towards securing a deal to bring the hostages home, we will not be able to continue serving.

“For some of us, the red line has already been crossed, and for others, it is rapidly approaching: the day when, with broken hearts, we will stop reporting for service.”

The group includes both reserve and regular soldiers, some of whom have served in Gaza and on Israel’s northern border since last year’s 7 October Hamas attacks.