Hezbollah hits back with more than 100 rockets across a wider and deeper area of Israel

[Pelican Press 0]

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Hezbollah hits back with more than 100 rockets across a wider and deeper area of *******

NAHARIYA, ******* (AP) — Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern *******, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as ******* launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. The sides appeared to be spiraling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions.

The rocket barrage overnight set off air raid sirens across northern *******, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The ******** military said that rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas,” pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.

One rocket struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a community near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on *****. *******’s Magen David Adom rescue service said that a total of four people were wounded by shrapnel in the barrage.

Avi Vazana raced to a shelter with his wife and 9-month-old baby before he heard the ***** of the rocket hitting in Kiryat Bialik. Then he went back outside to see if anyone was hurt.

“I ran without shoes, without a shirt, only with pants. I ran to this house when everything was still on ***** to try to find if there are other people,” he said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that two people were ******* and another was wounded in ******** strikes near the border, without elaborating.

The barrage came after an ******** airstrike in Beirut on Friday

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, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as women and children. Hezbollah was already reeling from a sophisticated ******* that caused

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just days earlier.

The ******** military said that it carried out a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting about 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an ******** military spokesman, said those strikes had thwarted an even larger *******.

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians have come under ***** across a lot of northern Isreal. They spent the night and now the morning in ***** shelters,” he said. “Today we saw ***** that was deeper into ******* than before.”

The military also said it had intercepted multiple aerial devices fired from the direction of Iraq, after Iran-backed militant groups there claimed to have launched a drone ******* on *******.

*******’s Health Ministry said that all hospitals in the north would begin moving operations to protected areas or shelters within the medical centers.

In a separate development, ******** forces

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, which it had banned earlier this year, accusing it of serving as a mouthpiece for militant groups, allegations denied by the pan-***** broadcaster.

******* and Hezbollah have traded ***** since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, when the militant group began ******* rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally ******. The low-level fighting has ******* dozens of people in *******, hundreds in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier.

Until recently, neither side was believed to be seeking an all-out war, and Hezbollah has so far stopped short of targeting Tel Aviv or major civilian infrastructure. But in recent weeks, ******* has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and vowed to bring back calm to the border so that its citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said that it would only halt its attacks if there is a cease-***** in Gaza,

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.

The war in Gaza began with ******’ Oct. 7 ******* into *******, in which ************ militants ******* about 1,200 people and took around 250 others ********. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be *****. Over 41,000 Palestinians have been *******, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were fighters, but says women and children make up more than half of the *****.

Families of the hostages have raised fears that a war in the north would distract from their plight and further complicate the negotiations over their release.

The U.N. 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.

******** media reported that rockets fired from Lebanon early Sunday were intercepted in the areas of Haifa and Nazareth, which are further south than most of the rocket ***** to date. ******* canceled school across the north, deepening the sense of crisis.

Hezbollah said that it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of ******* the group hadn’t used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, “in response to the repeated ******** attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group released a video with what it said was footage it had filmed of the base with surveillance drones.

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 *******. It didn’t provide evidence, and the ******** military declined to comment on the statement.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against ******* for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, ******** at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding around 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on *******, which hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.

On Friday, an ******** airstrike took down an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to *******. Among those ******* was

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who commanded the group’s special forces unit, known as the Radwan Force.

Lebanese authorities say at least seven women and three children were ******* in Friday’s airstrike and that dozens more were wounded. It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the monthlong war in 2006 between ******* and Hezbollah.

******** Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the ******* broke up the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for ******** deaths.

Akil had been on the U.S. most wanted list for years, with a $7 million reward, over his alleged role in the 1983 ******** of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of ********* and ******* hostages in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.

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Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Moshe Edri contributed to this report from Kiryat Bialik.

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#Hezbollah #hits #rockets #wider #deeper #area #*******

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