Dozens of rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon, IDF says

NAHARIYA, Israel — Over 100 rockets have been fired into Israel from Lebanon early Sunday, with some touchdown close to the northern metropolis of Haifa, as Israel and the Hezbollah militant group seemed to be spiraling towards all-out warfare following months of escalating tensions.

The rockets streaked over a wider and deeper space of northern Israel than earlier volleys and set off air raid sirens throughout the area. The Israeli army mentioned rockets had been fired “towards civilian areas,” pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.

Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated four people for shrapnel wounds, including a 76-year-old man who was moderately wounded near Haifa, where buildings were damaged and cars set on fire. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by a rocket or an Israeli interceptor.

The barrage got here after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at the least 37 folks, together with certainly one of Hezbollah’s high leaders in addition to girls and kids. Hezbollah was already reeling from a classy assault that prompted hundreds of non-public gadgets to explod e simply days earlier.

The Israeli army mentioned it carried out a wave of strikes throughout southern Lebanon over the previous 24 hours, hitting some 400 militant websites, together with rocket launchers.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded hearth for the reason that outbreak of the warfare in Gaza practically a yr in the past, when the militant group started firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. The low-level combating has displaced tens of hundreds of individuals on either side of the frontier.

Israeli Iron Dome air protection system fires to intercept rockets that have been launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024.

Baz Ratner/AP/AP

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Baz Ratner/AP/AP

Neither facet is believed to be in search of a warfare. However in current weeks, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and vowed to carry again calm to the border in order that its residents can return to their houses. Hezbollah has mentioned it’ll solely halt its assaults if there’s a cease-fire in Gaza, which seems more and more elusive as long-running negotiations led by the USA, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly slowed down.

The warfare in Gaza started with Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault into Israel, through which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 folks and took round 250 hostage. They’re nonetheless holding round 100 captives, a 3rd of whom are believed to be lifeless. Gaza’s Well being Ministry says over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. It doesn’t say what number of have been fighters however says girls and kids make up over half of the lifeless.

Israeli media reported that rockets fired from Lebanon early Sunday have been intercepted within the areas of Haifa and Nazareth, that are additional south than a lot of the rocket hearth thus far. Israel canceled college throughout the north, deepening the sense of disaster.

Hezbollah mentioned it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a brand new sort of weapon the group had not used earlier than — on the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group launched a video with what it mentioned was footage it had filmed of the bottom with surveillance drones.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate in opposition to Israel for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at the least 37 folks — together with two youngsters — and wounding round 3,000. The assaults have been broadly blamed on Israel, which has not confirmed or denied duty.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike took down an eight-story constructing in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs as Hezbollah members have been assembly within the basement, in keeping with Israel. Amongst these killed was Ibrahim Akil, a high Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s particular forces unit, often known as the Radwan Drive.

Lebanon’s well being minister, Firass Abiad, advised reporters Saturday that at the least seven girls and three youngsters have been killed in Friday’s airstrike on the constructing. He mentioned one other 68 folks have been injured, together with 15 who have been hospitalized.

It was the deadliest strike on Beirut for the reason that bruising monthlong warfare in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, and the casualty depend may develop, with 23 folks nonetheless lacking, a authorities official mentioned.

Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned the assault broke up the group’s chain of command whereas taking out Akil, who he mentioned was accountable for Israeli deaths. He had been on the U.S. most needed checklist for years, with a $7 million reward, over his alleged function within the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the course of the civil warfare within the Eighties.