Hezbollah, Israel exchange heavy fire amid fear of widening conflict
Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern occupied territories, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon.
The rocket barrage overnight was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications devices. Air raid sirens echoed across northern occupied territories, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters, AP reported.
One rocket struck near a building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding several people and setting buildings and cars on fire.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that three people were killed and another four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border.
The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as women and children.
Hezbollah said that it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of weapon the group hadn’t used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”
Hezbollah also said it had targeted the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, which is headquartered in Haifa, calling it retaliation for the wireless devices attack.
Friday’s air attack on the densely populated area followed explosions of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was also blamed on Israel and killed at least 39 people while wounding close to 3,000 others.
War in ‘new phase’
Hezbollah legislator Hassan Fadlallah, speaking at a funeral for a Hezbollah member on Sunday, said that the war had entered a “new phase” and that the resistance group would keep up its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
“We have a strong and capable resistance,” he said. “All of its options are on the table, and it is prepared for any scenario, war or confrontation.”
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, when the resistance group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. The low-level fighting has killed dozens of people in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier.
The UN envoy for Lebanon called on all parties to pull back.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in an X post.