JERUSALEM: On the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread warfare throughout the Middle East, Hezbollah launched missiles at Haifa, the third-largest city in Israel, on Monday. Israeli forces appeared ready to escalate ground incursions into south Lebanon.
Iran-supported Hezbollah, a Palestinian organization that fights Israel in Gaza with Hamas, claimed to have conducted a second strike on Tiberias, 65 kilometers away, and used “Fadi 1” rockets to target a military base south of Haifa.
Later in the day, Hezbollah claimed to have fired rockets into neighborhoods north of Haifa.
The Israeli military reported that on Monday, about 135 rockets had reached Israeli territory. Injuries were reported to have affected ten people in the Haifa region and two more in central Israel, further south.
The Israeli military said that two Israeli troops had been killed in border-area fighting and that the air force was heavily attacking Hezbollah sites in south Lebanon.
Ten firefighters were slain in an Israeli bombing on a municipal facility in the town of Bint Jbeil, according to the health ministry of Lebanon.
Although the ground operation has been “localized, limited, and targeted,” according to the Israeli military, its scope has gradually expanded since it started last week.
The 91st Division of the military said on Monday that its men had entered southern Lebanon.
Additionally on Monday, some 100 Israeli fighters launched a barrage of attacks that in only one hour struck 120 targets in southern Lebanon, including the rocket force and intelligence directorate of Hezbollah, as well as Radwan special forces groups. As per the military statement, “this operation is part of a sequence of strikes intended to weaken Hezbollah’s ability to command, control, and fire, and to aid ground forces in accomplishing their operational objectives.”
Haifa launched a strike
Five rockets were fired from Lebanon into Haifa, according to an Israeli military statement, and interceptors were also fired in their direction. “There were said to be fallen munitions nearby. The incident is under review.”
It claimed that fifteen further rockets, some of which were shot down, were fired inland at Tiberias in the northern Galilee region of Israel.
According to Israeli media, five additional rockets later struck the Tiberias region.
The military reported that a surface-to-air missile fired from Yemen into central Israel was also intercepted.
Meanwhile, the group stated that Hamas fired a rocket volley towards Israel’s commercial hub, Tel Aviv, sending off sirens in the country’s central regions.
At a special cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “We are changing the security reality in our region…to ensure that what happened on Oct 7 does not happen again.”
1.2 million people have been forced to flee Lebanon due to Israeli bombings.
Israelis honored the first anniversary of the Hamas attack with rituals and rallies on Monday included a memorial gathering for victims of the Nova Music Festival when Hamas terrorists killed 364 people and took away 44 partygoers and personnel.
An estimated 1,200 Israelis were killed and approximately 250 captured by Hamas-led terrorists during their surprise attack on Israeli towns and kibbutz communities close to the Gaza border a year ago.
According to Palestinian health authorities, the Israeli offensive on Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas assault, has killed about 42,000 people and nearly destroyed the heavily populated region.
The Israeli military reported on Monday night that five projectile launches that were detected crossing from Lebanon caused sirens to activate in central Israel. According to the military, some bullets were deflected and the remainder fell into open spaces.
Hezbollah later issued a statement alleging they conducted a rocket operation targeting a military intelligence unit near Tel Aviv.
According to the report, a rocket launch operation was conducted on the Glilot base of military intelligence unit 8200, which is situated in the Tel Aviv suburbs.
