TEL AVIV/GAZA STRIP  -  Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel killed seven people in agricultural fields near Metula and Haifa Thursday, marking what appeared to be the deadliest day in months for civilians inside Israel.

The deaths, which raised the number of civilians killed in the last year of cross-border attacks on northern Israel to 39, were likely to loom large in meetings between Israeli officials and US mediators hoping to end over a month of fighting, as the military continued to expand its strikes on Hezbollah sites deep inside Lebanon. Israeli authorities said five people working in an apple orchard near the border town of Metula were killed when a rocket fired from Lebanon struck them late Thursday morning. Another person was seriously wounded in the attack.

The victims were all agricultural laborers who had been working in the orchard at the time of the strike. One was an Israeli citizen, while the others were foreign nationals.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a short statement that two rockets had been fired from Lebanon at the Metula area, and said the details of the incident were being examined. Hours later, two more people were killed while in an olive grove outside the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Ata as Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the area, authorities said.

The two, described as a woman in her 60s and a man in his 30s, were killed by falling shrapnel, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.

A senior Hamas official said Thursday that the group rejects any proposal for a temporary halt to more than a year of fighting in Gaza and insists on a lasting ceasefire.

“The idea of a temporary pause in the war, only to resume aggression later, is something we have already expressed our position on. Hamas supports a permanent end to the war, not a temporary one,” Taher al-Nunu, a senior leader of the movement, told AFP. Mediators seeking to broker a Gaza ceasefire are expected to propose a truce of “less than a month” to Hamas, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Wednesday.

Meetings between Mossad head David Barnea, CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, which concluded on Monday, discussed proposing a “short-term” truce of “less than a month”, the source said on condition of anonymity because of the talks’ sensitivity. The proposal involves exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinians in Israeli prisons and increasing aid to Gaza, the source added.

“US officials believe that if a short-term deal can be reached, it could lead to a more permanent agreement,” the source said.

Nunu said the group had not received any proposal so far, adding if it gets such a plan, it would respond.

However, he reiterated the demands the group has been insisting on for months -- “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal (of Israeli forces) from Gaza, the return of displaced people, sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza and a serious prisoner exchange deal”.