(Nahariya) Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets early Sunday into northern Israel, some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader said an “open battle” was underway as the two sides appeared to be moving closer to all-out war.
The overnight rocket barrage was a response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that killed dozens of people, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications equipment. Air raid sirens in northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands fleeing to shelters.
One of them struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on fire. The Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom (the “Red Star of David” in English) said four people were injured.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said three people were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border, without specifying whether they were civilians or fighters.
The rocket attacks followed an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on Friday that killed at least 45 people, including Ibrahim Aqil, a top Hezbollah leader, several other fighters, women and children.
Hezbollah was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies just days earlier. But Hezbollah must strike a difficult balance between expanding the rules of engagement by striking deeper into Israel, while trying to avoid large-scale attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure that could trigger a full-scale war that it would rather avoid and for which it would take responsibility.
Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said Sunday’s rocket attack was just the beginning of what is now an “open battle” with Israel.
“We admit that we are sad. We are human. But just as we are sad, so will you be,” Naim Qassem warned at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top commander, Ibrahim Akil. He vowed that Hezbollah would continue its military operations against Israel in support of Gaza, but also warned of unexpected attacks “from outside,” pointing to rockets fired deeper into Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will take all necessary steps to restore security in the north and allow people to return home.
“No country can accept unjustified rocket attacks on its cities. We cannot accept it either,” he argued.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby remained hopeful for a peaceful resolution, telling “Fox News Sunday” that the United States was “engaged in extensive and fairly assertive diplomacy.” “We want to make sure that we can continue to do everything we can to try to prevent this from becoming an all-out war with Hezbollah across the border in Lebanon,” he said.
Even bigger Hezbollah attack foiled?
The Israeli military said it struck about 400 combat sites, including rocket launchers, in southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours, foiling an even larger attack.
“Hundreds of thousands of civilians came under fire in much of northern Israel,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said. “Today we saw fire that was deeper into Israel than before.”
The military also said it intercepted several aerial missiles fired from Iraq, after Iranian-backed militant groups claimed to have launched a drone attack on Israel.
Classes have been canceled in northern Israel and the Health Ministry said all hospitals in the north would begin moving their operations to protected areas within medical centers.
Separately, Israeli forces raided the West Bank office of Al-Jazeera, which they had banned earlier this year, accusing it of serving as a mouthpiece for militant groups, allegations the pan-Arab channel denied.