Hezbollah hits Israel with rockets | News, Sports, Jobs

HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTERS CARRY PICTURES OF HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER IBRAHIM AKILS DURING HIS FUNERAL IN A SOUTHERN SUBURB OF BEIRUT ON SUNDAY. AKILS AND 44 OTHERS WERE KILLED IN AN IRAQI ATTACK IN BEIRUT THIS SPRING. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets over northern Israel early Sunday, some of which landed near the city of Haifa, while Israel launched hundreds of attacks on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader declared a “open fight” was underway as both sides seemed to be moving ever closer to all-out war.

The overnight rocket fire was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that killed dozens of people, including a longtime Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack on the group's communications equipment. Air raid sirens across northern Israel forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to shelters.

An attack struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a town near Haifa. At least three people were injured and buildings and cars were set on fire. The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom reported that four people were injured.

Avi Vazana ran into a shelter with his wife and nine-month-old baby before he heard the rocket hit. Then he went back outside to see if anyone was hurt.

“I ran with no shoes, no shirt, just pants. I ran to that house while it was still burning to find out if there were any other people there.” he said.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said three people were killed and four injured in Israeli attacks near the border. It did not say whether the victims were civilians or combatants.

Hezbollah responds to unprecedented strikes

The rocket attacks followed an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday that killed at least 45 people, including Ibrahim Akil, a top Hezbollah leader, several other fighters, and women and children.

Already reeling from a sophisticated attack that detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies just days earlier, Hezbollah faces the difficult task of stretching the rules of engagement by moving deeper into Israel while trying to avoid large-scale attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure that could spark an all-out war that it would rather not start and take the blame for.

Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Kassem said Sunday’s rocket attack was only the beginning of what is now a “open fight” with Israel.

“We admit that we suffer. We are human. But as we suffer, so will you.” Kassem spoke at Akil's funeral. He vowed that Hezbollah would continue its military operations against Israel in support of Gaza, but also warned of unexpected attacks. “from outside the box”, and pointed to rockets fired deeper into Israel.

Late Sunday evening, Hezbollah announced a series of rocket and artillery attacks on military bases in northern Israel. It was initially unclear whether there were any casualties or damage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take all necessary measures to restore security in the north and allow people to return to their homes.

“No country can tolerate the wanton development of its cities. We cannot tolerate it either.” he said.

More funerals for those killed in the airstrike were held on Sunday. Seven people, including three women and two children, were buried in the southern Lebanese town of Mays al-Jabal, where Christian Lebanese lawmaker Melhem Khalaf said Israel “relies on the law of the jungle rather than on international conventions, particularly in the protection of civilians.”

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told ABC “This week” that the USA “engaged in extensive and quite energetic diplomacy.” He added: “We want to ensure that we can continue to do everything in our power to prevent a full-scale war with Hezbollah from breaking out across the Lebanese border.”

Israel claims to have foiled an even larger Hezbollah attack

The Israeli military said it had attacked about 400 militant positions in southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours, including rocket launchers, thwarting an even larger attack.

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians have come under fire in large parts of northern Israel,” said Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani. “Today we saw that the fire has penetrated deeper into Israel than ever before.”

The military also said it had intercepted several missiles fired from Iraq after Iranian-backed militant groups there claimed they had launched a drone attack on Israel.

Classes were canceled throughout northern Israel and the Health Ministry announced that all hospitals in the north would move their operations to protected areas of medical centers.

Separately, Israeli forces raided the West Bank office of Al Jazeera, which they banned earlier this year, accusing it of serving as a mouthpiece for militant groups. The pan-Arab broadcaster denied the allegations.

UN envoy says region is on the brink of disaster

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading blows since the Gaza war began nearly a year ago, when the militant group fired rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its Iranian-backed ally Hamas. The smaller-scale fighting has left dozens of people dead in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon and tens of thousands displaced on both sides of the border.

Until recently, neither side was believed to want a full-scale war, and Hezbollah has not yet attacked Tel Aviv or key civilian infrastructure. But in recent weeks, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon. Hezbollah has said it will not stop its attacks until the war in Gaza ends, as a ceasefire there seems increasingly difficult to achieve.

The war in Gaza began with the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostage. About 100 prisoners are still being held, a third of whom are believed to be dead. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. It does not say how many fighters there were, but it says more than half of the dead were women and children.

“The region is on the brink of imminent disaster. It cannot be stressed enough: There is NO military solution that would make either side safer,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN envoy for Lebanon, said on X.

Families of Israeli hostages and residents of the Gaza Strip expressed fears that the fighting in Lebanon could divert international attention from their own plight.

“I am incredibly concerned about the increasing tensions with Hezbollah, because my biggest concern is that all the public attention and the attention of the world” would be distracted, said Udi Goren, a relative of Tal Haimi, an Israeli who was killed on October 7 and whose body was brought to Gaza.

Enas Kollab, a Palestinian displaced from Gaza, expressed similar concerns. “We are afraid that the situation in Lebanon will affect us – that all attention will be focused on Lebanon and we will be forgotten,” she said.

Hezbollah says it is using new weapons

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets – a new weapon the group had not used before – at the Ramat David air base southeast of Haifa. “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks on various Lebanese regions, which resulted in the deaths of many civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group reportedly released a video taken from the base using surveillance drones.

Hezbollah also said it attacked facilities of Haifa-based defense company Rafael, calling it retaliation for the wireless attack. No evidence was provided and the Israeli military declined to comment.

Hezbollah vowed retaliation for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday. At least 37 people – including two children – were killed and about 3,000 injured. Blame for the attacks was widely placed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated Beirut suburb on Friday while Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, Israel said. Among those killed was Akil, the commander of the group's special forces.

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Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Moshe Edri in Kiryat Bialik; Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip; and Shlomo Mor in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.