Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel as Israeli strikes pound Gaza
2024.10.19 07:45
By Maayan Lubell and Maya Gebeily
JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) -The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets and several drones into northern Israel on Saturday killing one person, with one drone directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s holiday home, according to his spokesman.
The volley came as health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes had killed at least 11 people in Al Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the territory, and at least seven people in Gaza City’s Shati camp.
Two patients had died in the territory’s Indonesian Hospital due to a siege that has cut off power and medical supplies, while a nurse had been killed at Kamal Adwan hospital, they said.
Pledges from Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting in Gaza and Lebanon have dashed hopes that the death of Palestinian militant leader Yahya Sinwar might hasten an end to more than a year of escalating war in the Middle East.
Hamas leader Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.
Israel has also been pounding Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, in what it says is an effort to stop Hamas fighters regrouping.
As Israel continues military offensives on two fronts, Lebanon’s health ministry said at least two people had been killed in an Israeli strike near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, in the first such attack on the area.
The Israeli military was looking into the report of the strike in Jounieh, a spokesperson said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group that is fighting Israeli troops on Lebanon’s southern border and whose top leadership has suffered blows from targeted Israeli strikes.
‘MISSILES SEIZED’
Separately, the Israeli military said its aircraft killed Hezbollah’s deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday and that its troops had seized weapons, including anti-tank missiles.
Hezbollah by midday on Saturday had claimed 11 attacks on Israeli military targets since midnight, all of them with salvos of rockets. There was no immediate comment from it on any drone attacks or attacks targeting Netanyahu’s home.
In northern Israel, some of the rockets were intercepted but one hit a residential building, according to police.
One person was killed and at least nine people were injured in different locations, the Israeli ambulance service said. Air raid sirens sent people running to shelters.
Netanyahu’s spokesman said the prime minister was not in the vicinity of his holiday home in Caesarea and there were no casualties.
A resident of the coastal town told Israel’s N12 News that helicopters were heard above the town before a large explosion shook the streets.
STALLED TALKS
Iran-backed Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began in Gaza last October.
Some 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them in the last month, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in their attack on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s military response has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.
The Israeli offensive has made most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people homeless, maimed tens of thousands, caused widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.
Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, have said Sinwar’s death offered a chance for a deal for a truce in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages.
Negotiations for such a deal have been stalled for weeks.
Biden said on Friday that there was a possibility of working towards a ceasefire in Lebanon but it would be harder in Gaza.
