2 killed in West Bank shooting after Israel strikes Lebanon, Gaza

Palestinians inspect an area hit by Israeli airstrikes, on April 07, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) JERUSALEM - Israel conducted rare airstrikes in Lebanon and continued bombarding the Gaza Strip on Friday, an escalation that sparked fears of a broader conflict following violence over Jerusalem’s most sensitive site.With tensions running high across Israel and the region, an alleged Palestinian shooting attack near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank killed two women in their 20s and seriously wounded a 45-year-old, Israeli medics said.

The attack, coming after weeks of unusually heightened unrest in the West Bank, suggested that the recent tensions in Jerusalem could be spilling over to the occupied territory.Even as quiet returned to Israel's northern and southern borders, the early morning Israeli strikes on Lebanon — which analysts described as the most serious border violence since Israel’s 2006 war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants — threatened to push the confrontation into a new phase.

Israeli strikes came in retaliation for a major barrage of rockets from Lebanon the day before, after Israeli police raids at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem spiraled into unrest and sparked outrage across the Arab world.RELATED: Israel launches strikes in Gaza Strip as Netanyahu vows to extract 'heavy price'Although the Israeli military was quick to emphasize that its warplanes struck sites belonging to only Palestinian militant groups, the barrage risks drawing in Israel’s bitter foe Hezbollah, which holds sway over much of southern Lebanon and has in the past portrayed itself as a defender of the Palestinians and the contested city of Jerusalem.During a lull in.