Jerusalem/Beirut: Hezbollah launched approximately 200 rockets into Israel on Sunday as Israel prepared to initiate a new wave of airstrikes on Beirut.
The Israeli military said in a statement that the rockets, fired by Hezbollah militants, targeted northern and central Israel and included three drones. It added that the country’s aerial defence systems intercepted only some of the rockets. A launcher from which projectiles were fired toward the Haifa Bay area was struck by the military.
At least eight people were injured by the afternoon. In Kfar Blum, close to the Israel-Lebanon border, first responders with the Magen David Adom rescue service said they treated a man who sustained serious wounds.
A five-story residential building in Haifa, the largest city on Israel’s northern coast, was evacuated due to fears of collapse after it was struck by a rocket, the Fire and National Rescue Authority reported. Additional damage was reported in the northern cities of Kiryat Shmona and Ma’alot, as well as near Petah Tikvah in central Israel.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for missile and drone strikes on a military target in Tel Aviv, in retaliation for Israel’s recent airstrikes on Beirut, Xinhua news agency reported.
The attacks were carried out at 06:30 am local time (0430 GMT) “with a salvo of high-quality missiles and a squadron of attack drones,” and “the operation achieved its goals,” Hezbollah said in a statement, without specifying its target and the precise location.
The group said in other separate statements that it also launched for the first time “an air attack with a squadron of suicide drones on the Ashdod naval base, 150 km from the Lebanese-Palestinian border.”
The group also claimed launching drone attacks on a newly-established operations room for the Israeli army in the settlement of Metula in northern Israel, and missile attacks on other northern cities including Hatzor Haglilit, Ma’alot, and Kfar Blum.
Lebanese military sources, who spoke anonymously, told Xinhua that violent clashes have been ongoing since the early hours of Sunday between Hezbollah members and Israeli forces that had advanced in Lebanon’s southeastern town of Khiam, the village of Yaroun in the central sector, and the village of Chamaa in the western sector of the border area.
The Israeli army blew up about 18 houses on the eastern edge of Khiam, including the municipality building, they said.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes carried out seven raids on towns and villages in eastern Lebanon and 10 on those in the south, and the Israeli artillery shelled 11 border towns and villages in southern Lebanon with about 50 shells, they added.
The Israeli military also announced plans to renew airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburb, urging residents to evacuate the area in a post on social media platform X. On Saturday, Israel carried out at least three waves of strikes on the Lebanese capital, killing at least 20 individuals and injuring 66 others, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Since September 23, the Israeli army has intensified its air attack on Lebanon in an escalation of conflict with Hezbollah. Israel further initiated a ground operation across its northern border into Lebanon in early October.
(IANS)
