NAHARIYA, Israel – More than 100 rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon early Sunday, with several landing near the northern city of Haifa, as Israel and the Hezbollah militant group appeared headed for all-out war after months of escalating tensions.
The rockets went over a wider area and deeper into northern Israel than previous volleys and set off air raid sirens in the area. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired “into civilian areas,” indicating a possible escalation after previous barrages were mainly aimed at military targets.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said it was treating four people for shrapnel wounds, including a 76-year-old man with moderate injuries near Haifa, where buildings were destroyed and cars burned. It is unclear whether the damage was caused by rockets or Israeli interceptors.
The attack came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at least 37 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as women and children. Hezbollah is reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of personal devices to explode a few days earlier.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a wave of strikes in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting around 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the outbreak of war in Gaza nearly a year ago, when the militant group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and their Iranian-backed allies Hamas. Low-level fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border.
Neither side is believed to be seeking war. But in recent weeks, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and vowed to bring peace back to the border so residents can return home. Hezbollah has said that it will only stop its attacks if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which seems increasingly difficult to achieve as the long-running talks led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly bogged down.
The war in Gaza began with an October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. They still hold about 100 prisoners, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. It did not say how many fighters but said women and children made up more than half of the dead.
Israeli media reported that a rocket fired from Lebanon early Sunday was intercepted in the Haifa and Nazareth areas, further south than most of the rockets so far. Israel canceled schools in the north, adding to the sense of crisis.
Hezbollah said it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles – 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 targeting various areas of Lebanon and leading to fall many civilian martyrs.
In July, the group released a video with footage recorded at the base by a surveillance drone.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit fences and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people – including two children – and wounding around 3,000. The attack was widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among the dead was Ibrahim Akil, a high-ranking Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit, known as the Radwan Force.
Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in an airstrike on the building. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.
It was the deadliest attack in Beirut since a month-long war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, and the death toll could rise, with 23 people still missing, government officials said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for the Israeli death. He has been on the US’s most wanted list for years, with a $7 million bounty, for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s. .