Hezbollah strikes back with more than 100 rockets in a larger and deeper area of ​​Israel

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets over a wider and deeper area of ​​northern Israel early Sunday, some landing near the city of Haifa, while Israel launched hundreds of attacks on Lebanon. After months of escalating tensions, the sides appear headed toward all-out war.

The overnight rocket fire set off air raid sirens across northern Israel and forced thousands of people to flee to shelters. The Israeli military said the rockets were fired “at civilian areas,” indicating a possible escalation after previous attacks had mainly targeted military targets.

A rocket hit near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a community near Haifa. At least three people were injured and buildings and cars caught fire. The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom reported that a total of four people were injured by shrapnel in the shelling.

Avi Vazana ran into a shelter with his wife and nine-month-old baby before he heard the bang of the rocket hitting Kiryat Bialik, then went back outside to see if anyone was hurt.

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

Israel's Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets fired from Lebanon in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Baz Ratner

The Lebanese Health Ministry said one person was killed and another injured in an Israeli attack near the border.

The shelling came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah's top leaders, as well as women and children. Hezbollah was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that detonated thousands of private devices just days earlier.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a wave of attacks across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting around 400 militant positions, including rocket launchers. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said the strikes had foiled an even larger attack.

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians have come under fire in large parts of northern Israel. They spent the night and now the morning in bomb shelters,” he said. “Today we saw that the fire has penetrated deeper into Israel than 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.

The Israeli Health Ministry said all hospitals in the north would begin moving their operations to protected areas or emergency shelters within medical centers.

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

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, pledging to restore calm along the border so citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said it will only stop its attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which seems increasingly elusive.

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. They still hold about 100 prisoners, a third of whom are believed dead. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. There is no information on how many fighters were killed, but it says more than half of the dead were women and children.

The hostages' families expressed fear that a war in the north could distract from their situation and further complicate negotiations for their release.

The UN envoy for Lebanon called on all parties to withdraw.

“As the region stands 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 said in an X-post.

Israeli media reported that rockets fired from Lebanon early Sunday were intercepted in the areas around Haifa and Nazareth, areas further south than most rocket attacks so far. Israel has canceled classes across the north, adding to the sense of crisis.

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

In July, the group released a video containing alleged footage of the base taken with surveillance drones.

Hezbollah also said it attacked the 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 on the statement.

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

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs while Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, Israel said. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah official who commanded the group's special forces unit, the Radwan Force.

Lebanese authorities said Friday's airstrike killed at least seven women and three children and wounded dozens more. It was the deadliest attack on Beirut since the month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke the group's chain of command and eliminated Akil, who he said was responsible for the deaths of Israeli soldiers.

Akil had been on the US wanted list for years, with a reward of seven million dollars on his behalf. He is accused of playing a role in the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut in 1983 and in the hostage-taking of American and German people in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.

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Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Moshe Edri contributed to this report from Kiryat Bialik.

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