Over 100 Rockets Fired Into Israel From Lebanon
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military says over 100 rockets have been fired into the country from Lebanon, with some landing near the northern city of Haifa.
Israeli first responders say the early morning barrage on Sunday wounded at least three people near Haifa, damaged buildings, and set cars on fire.
Anticipating retaliation, the Israeli military had restricted gatherings and raised the alert level for residents of northern communities.
The alert went as far south as the coastal city of Haifa, signaling Israel thought Hezbollah could strike deeper than it had since the war with Hamas began, observers said.
Saturday’s barrage came after officials in Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed at least 37 people, including one of the Hezbollah group’s senior leaders as well as women and children.
The Iran-backed Islamic group is also reeling from a sophisticated attack using thousands of explosive personal devices such as pagers and walkie-talkies just days earlier that reportedly killed nearly 40 people and injured thousands.
DEADLIEST ATTACK
However, Saturday’s strike was described as the deadliest single attack since Hezbollah-Israel clashes began following the October 7 attack by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas in southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people.
Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed group, said 16 members, including senior leader Ibrahim Agil and another commander, Ahmed Wahbi, were among those killed.
Israel’s army said it hit an underground gathering of Aqil and leaders of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces and had almost completely dismantled its military chain of command.
Witnesses said Saturday’s Israeli strike destroyed a multi-story residential building in the crowded suburb and damaged a nursery next door, a security source said. Three children and seven women were among those killed, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
It came as cross-border clashes continued on Saturday as Israeli warplanes carried out the heaviest bombardment in 11 months of fighting across Lebanon’s south, and Hezbollah claimed rocket attacks on military targets in Israel’s north.
180 TARGETS
The Israeli army said it hit around 180 targets, destroying thousands of rocket launch barrels.
Hezbollah pledged it would only halt
attacks on Israel if it agrees to a ceasefire in its war against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led rampage in southern Israel on October 7.
U.S. officials say that is unlikely anytime soon.
Israel wants Hezbollah to cease fire and withdraw forces from the border region, adhering to a U.N. resolution signed with Israel in 2006, irrespective of any Gaza deal.
Thousands of people in northern Israel and southern Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes due to the ongoing fighting.