BEIRUT: Hezbollah said it fired a large rocket barrage at northern Israel, including at a military base near the city of Haifa on Saturday after the Israeli military reported a barrage of projectiles launched from Lebanon.
Hezbollah said the “large salvo” of advanced rockets hit a military base east of Haifa. The Lebanese group has vowed to intensify attacks on Israel weeks into an all-out war that erupted on September 23.
In an earlier statement, Hezbollah, which vowed to intensify its attacks, also stated that it targeted regions north of Haifa city. In the nearby town of Kiryat Ata, five people were injured, mainly from shrapnel wounds, according to Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency services provider. A rocket hit a three-storey building, causing extensive damage, while two cars caught fire.
Footage from the scene showed firefighters and ambulances responding to the damage in Kiryat Ata, a district located in the broader Haifa area.
Meanwhile, Israeli authorities reported that a drone targeted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea, a town in central Israel.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that neither the prime minister nor his wife were at the residence during the attack, and no injuries were reported.
On Thursday, Hezbollah said that it was entering a new “escalatory phase” in its conflict with Israel, marking the latest developments as the most significant since the two began trading fire late last year.
On Saturday, sirens blared across northern Israel as Hezbollah launched projectiles from multiple locations in Lebanon.
Late last month, Israel dramatically intensified its air strikes on Lebanon and sent in ground forces after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges.
Lebanon’s health ministry said two people were killed on Saturday in an Israeli strike on a vital highway north of Beirut, in the first attack on the area since Hezbollah and Israel started trading fire last year.
Since late September, the ongoing Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,418 people in Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry reported, though the real toll is likely higher.
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes continue to pound southern and eastern Lebanon, with attacks also reaching central Beirut and Christian-majority towns in the north.
On Saturday, Lebanese authorities confirmed two civilian deaths in an Israeli strike on the Jounieh highway, a key route for those fleeing the fighting in the south. The victims, a man and his wife, were killed in a drone strike after escaping their vehicle during an initial attack.
Jounieh, located north of Beirut, had not been targeted since the hostilities began. The latest developments have deepened fears of the conflict spilling into more regions of Lebanon, as Israel continues its air and ground operations.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civil defence agency said that an Israeli airstrike near Jabalia in the territory’s north killed around 33 people at a refugee camp overnight from Friday to Saturday.
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The civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal has announced “33 deaths and dozens of injured,” while a health source at the Al-Awda hospital said that more than 70 people were wounded in the Israeli strike.
Hamas on Friday confirmed the death of its newly appointed chief, Yahya Sinwar, in yesterday’s Israeli attack.
In a video statement, Hamas said that Sinwar’s death will “build strength,” adding that they will not release hostages until the Gaza war ends and Israeli forces withdraw from the besieged and bombarded territory, senior Hamas official Khalil Hayya says.
