Sept. 22 (UPI) — Hezbollah on Sunday launched around 85 missiles from Lebanon into the Haifa area — the deepest into Israel since the beginning of the war in October — with three people injured.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group, claimed the rockets were in response to the pager and walkie-talkie blasts in Lebanon last week, which killed more than 30 members of the terror group and wounded thousands of others. The attack was attributed to Israel, which has not commented.
More than 60 Israeli airstrikes have been fired on southern Lebanon since dawn Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant conducted security consultations with ministers and top defense officials on Saturday night. Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said the IAF was on the highest level of alert.
“If Hezbollah didn’t get the message — I assure you — they will get the message,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ahead of a government meeting Sunday, “We are determined to return our citizens in the north to their homes safely.”
Netanyahu has delayed his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He plans to leave Friday, an Israeli official told CNN.
U.S. officials are urging Israel to de-escalate but the nation must defend itself against attacks, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Sunday.
“We’re watching with concern the escalating tensions in the region and across that border here in the last week or so. And we don’t believe, continue to not believe, that kinetic action, military action, by either side is really in either side’s best interest … There’s a better way forward here,” Kirby said on Fox News Sunday.
President Joe Biden also expressed concern about tensions in the Middle East. He told reporters upon returning to the White House from Delaware on Sunday that “we’re going to do everything we can to keep a wider war from breaking out. And we’re still pushing hard.”
A teenager was killed when he crashed his vehicle as sirens sounded early Sunday in northern Israel, The Times of Israel reported.
Hezbollah fired 24 rockets in Jezreel Valley, which were all intercepted, according to Israel Defense Forces.
IDF said some of the rockets fired toward Haifa were intercepted and others impacted in Kiryat Bialik, a suburb of the northern coastal city, injuring three people.
One rocket caused significant damage but no injuries at a home in Moreshet in the Lower Galilee.
Hezbollah said they targeted the Israeli Air Force’s Ramat David Airbase, located some 31 miles from the Lebanon border.
The Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen network said the rockets were fired from an underground “Imad” missile base.
Thousands of rocket launcher barrels were hit in the strikes, the IDF said, as they vow to “dismantle and degrade” its capabilities.
Two million Israelis — a fifth of the population — are in range of the farthest strikes.
On Saturday, the IDF struck hundreds of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including rocket launchers. The army said there were preparations by the terror group to launch major rocket attacks against Israel.
The death toll from an Israeli strike on southern Beirut that targeted several Hezbollah commanders on Friday rose to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry said Sunday.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told CNN he is concerned Lebanon could be transformed into “another Gaza” amid escalating attacks between Israel and Hezbollah.
He told Fareed Zakaria there is “potential for a much stronger escalation,” which could be a “devastating tragedy for the world.”
The UN chief told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an exclusive interview aired on Sunday
These are the developments in southern Israel:
Seven people were killed Sunday morning in an Israeli airstrike on another school compound, reports from Gaza say. The IDF says the compound was being used as a Hamas base.
The Israeli military has struck several school compounds sheltering the displaced in recent weeks, with 22 people reported killed on Saturday in one strike.
The Gaza Civil Defense said Sunday that the highest proportion of civilian casualties in August at the school compounds.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza said the bodies of 40 people have been brought into hospitals in the past 24 hours and 58 individuals have been injured as a result of Israeli military operations. The ministry reported the cumulative death toll since Oct. 7 as 41,431, with 95,818 people injured.
During a raid, Israel’s military ordered the closure of Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, the network said.
A security guard told CNN the soldiers used explosives to breach the building’s entrance.
In May, Israel shut down its Jerusalem office and seized some of its communication equipment.
Al Jazeera broadcast live footage early Sunday of Israeli soldiers entering its offices in Ramall.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents foreign press in Israel and the Palestinian territories, said it was “deeply troubled” by what it described as an “escalation which threatens press freedom.”
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