BEIRUT: Hezbollah fired rockets at Haifa, Israel’s third largest city as Israel’s military said around 135 projectiles had entered Israeli territory on Monday as of 5 p.m. (1400 GMT).
Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with “Fadi 1” missiles and later areas north of Haifa in a second salvo of missiles.
It also said it launched another strike on Tiberias, 65 km (40 miles) away on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
An Israeli military statement said five rockets were launched towards Haifa, also a major Mediterranean port, from Lebanon and interceptors were fired at them. “Fallen projectiles were identified in the area. The incident is under review.”
Ten people were reported injured in the Haifa area and two others further south in central Israel.
Israel also intercepted two drones launched early on Monday from the east after sirens blared in the central areas of Rishon Lezion and Palmachim, the military said.
South Lebanon
The military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon, and that two Israeli soldiers were killed in border-area combat, taking the military death toll inside Lebanon so far to 11.
It said it also carried out a targeted strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where a thick plume of smoke could be seen.
Lebanon’s health ministry said 10 firefighters were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a municipal building in the border-area town of Bint Jbeil, and that other aerial attacks on Sunday killed 22 people in a swathe of southern and eastern towns.
Hamas, which triggered the Gaza war with a surprise attack on Israel a year ago today, targeted Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv with a missile salvo on the anniversary, the group said, setting off sirens in central areas of the country.
Many Israelis have regained confidence in their long vaunted military and intelligence apparatus after a series of deadly blows to the command structure of Hezbollah, Iran’s most formidable Middle East proxy force, in Lebanon in recent weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s airstrikes at a special cabinet meeting in Jerusalem marking the Gaza war anniversary.
“We are changing the security reality in our region, for our children’s sake, for our future, to ensure that what happened on Oct. 7 does not happen again,” Netanyahu said.
Israel hits more than 120 targets
Over 120 targets in southern Lebanon struck within an hour, Israeli military says
The Israeli military said it had conducted an “extensive aerial operation” and struck more than 120 targets in southern Lebanon within an hour.
It said those targets belonged to different units of Hezbollah.
“This operation follows a series of strikes aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s command, control, and firing capabilities, as well as assisting ground forces in achieving their operational goals,” it said.