Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa, police said early on Monday. Israeli media reported 10 people injured in the country’s north on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread in the Middle East. Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group fighting Israel in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of “Fadi 1” missiles. Media said two rockets hit Haifa on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, and five hit Tiberias, 65 km (40 miles) away.
The growing conflict has raised fears that the United States, Israel’s superpower ally, and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing Middle East.
Israel’s military, in a statement, said five rockets were launched at Haifa from Lebanon, adding: “Interceptors were fired. Fallen projectiles were identified in the area. The incident is under review.” It said 15 other rockets were fired inland at Tiberias in Israel’s northern Galilee region, some of them intercepted. Israel media said a further five rockets hit the Tiberias area. Police said some buildings and properties were damaged, and there were reports of minor injuries, with some people taken to a nearby hospital.
Israel intercepted early on Monday two aerial targets launched from the east after sirens went off in the central areas of Rishon Lezion and Palmachim, the military said on the first anniversary of the deadly, cross-border October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that ignited the Gaza war.
Many Israelis, demoralized by the catastrophic security failures around the Hamas incursion from Gaza a year ago, have regained confidence in their military and intelligence apparatus after a series of stunning blows against Hezbollah, Iran’s most heavily armed proxy militia, in Lebanon in recent weeks.
Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah is headquartered, were hit by air strikes around midnight as Israel pursued nightly raids on the once-densely populated district.
Israel’s military said it had struck Hezbollah arms storage facilities in the Beirut area, and that secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weaponry. There were also airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley area in the east, including weapons storage facilities, infrastructure sites and a command centre, the military said.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of deliberately embedding its command centres and weaponry beneath residential buildings in the heart of Beirut. Hezbollah denies storing weapons among civilians.
Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on 8 October 2023 in solidarity with Hamas. After a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel mostly limited to the frontier region, the conflict has significantly intensified in Lebanon.
Israel has carried out ground incursions into Lebanon’s southeast, which Hezbollah says it has repelled.
Israelis marked the first anniversary of the devastating Hamas attack on Monday, including a memorial event for the victims of the Nova Music Festival, a rave party where militants killed 364 people and kidnapped 44 party goers and staff.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures, during their lightning October 7 attack.
Israeli security forces were on high alert on Monday as the military and police anticipated potential Palestinian attacks coinciding with the anniversary. The Hamas assault led to an Israeli offensive on Gaza, resulting in significant damage to the densely populated coastal enclave and reportedly causing the deaths of almost 42,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who operates from a network of complex tunnels in the Gaza Strip, appears to have survived Israel’s onslaught so far.
Team BharatShakti
