Hezbollah strikes Israel on Gaza war anniversary
JERUSALEM/CAIRO—Hezbollah rockets hit Israel’s third largest city Haifa early on Monday as the country looked poised to expand ground incursions into southern Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread conflict across 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 and launched another attack on Tiberias, 65 kilometers 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.
Israeli police confirmed that rockets had struck Haifa, also a major port, and local media said 10 people were wounded there.
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.
Secondary explosions
Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah is headquartered, were hit by airstrikes 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 center, the military said.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of deliberately embedding its command centers and weaponry beneath residential buildings in the heart of Beirut. Hezbollah denies storing weapons among civilians.
Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on Oct. 8, 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 partygoers and staff.
Photographs of victims were displayed as people came to pay their respects, carrying Israeli flags amid a tight security presence.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures, during their lightning Oct. 7 attack.
The Hamas assault unleashed an Israeli offensive on Gaza that laid waste to the densely populated coastal enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Hamas-controlled health authorities say.
