Hezbollah responds with more than 100 rockets across wider and deeper areas of Israel

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets Sunday morning into a wider and deeper swath of northern Israel, some of which landed near the city of Haifa, while Israel launched hundreds of attacks on Lebanon as the sides appeared to be heading toward all-out war after months of escalating tensions.

The nighttime rocket barrage was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that killed dozens of people, including a Hezbollah veteran, and an unprecedented attack on the group’s communications facilities. It set off air raid sirens in northern Israel, forcing thousands to flee to shelters.

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 fire. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said a total of four people were wounded by shrapnel in the shelling.

Avi Vazana ran to the shelter with his wife and 9-month-old baby before he heard the rocket hit Kiryat Bialik. He then went outside to see if anyone had been injured.

“I ran with no shoes, no shirt, just my pants. I ran to that house while everything was still burning to try to find if there were other people there,” he said.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said three people were killed and four wounded in Israeli attacks near the border. It did not specify whether they were civilians or militants.

The shelling followed an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday that killed at least 45 people, including a top Hezbollah leader, as well as women and children. Hezbollah was already feeling the effects of a sophisticated attack that blew up thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies just days earlier.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take all necessary measures to restore security in the north of the country and allow people to return to their homes.

“No country can accept the mindless bombing of its cities. We cannot accept it either,” he said.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a wave of attacks in southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours, hitting some 400 militant targets, including rocket launchers. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, said the strikes had thwarted an even larger attack.

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians have come under fire across much of northern Israel,” he said. “Today we saw fire that was deeper into Israel than before.”

The military also said it had intercepted multiple explosive devices fired from Iraq, after Iran-backed militant groups said they carried out a drone strike on Israel.

Israel’s Health Ministry has announced that all hospitals in the north of the country will move their operations to protected areas or shelters in medical centers.

In another incident, Israeli forces raided the West Bank office of al-Jazeera, which was closed earlier this year, accusing it of being a propaganda mouthpiece for armed groups, an accusation the pan-Arab broadcaster denied.

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since the Gaza war erupted almost a year ago, when the militant group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and their Iranian-backed ally Hamas. Low-level fighting has killed dozens in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon and tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

Until recently, neither side was believed to be seeking all-out war, and Hezbollah has not yet targeted Tel Aviv or major civilian infrastructure. In recent weeks, however, Israel has shifted its attention from Gaza to Lebanon and has promised to restore calm to the border so its citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said it will halt attacks only if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which seems increasingly elusive.

The Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. They still hold about 100 prisoners, a third of whom are believed to be dead. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It did not say how many militants were there, but it said women and children made up more than half of the dead.

The hostages’ families fear that the war in the north of the country will distract attention from their plight and further complicate negotiations for their release.

The UN envoy to Lebanon called on all sides to withdraw.

“Given that the region is on the brink of imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overemphasized that there is NO military solution that would ensure the security of either side,” wrote Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert in an X post.

Israeli media reported that rockets fired from Lebanon early Sunday morning were intercepted in areas around Haifa and Nazareth, which are farther south than most of the rocket fire so far. Israel canceled school classes in the north, deepening the sense of crisis.

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of weapon the group has not used before — at the Ramat David air base, southeast of Haifa, “in response to repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various regions of Lebanon and led to the deaths of numerous civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group released a video that it said showed footage of the base taken using surveillance drones.

Hezbollah also said it attacked Haifa-based defense contractor Rafael, calling it retaliation for an attack with wireless devices. It provided no evidence, and the Israeli military declined to comment.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding about 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood on Beirut’s southern outskirts as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces unit, known as the Radwan Force.

Lebanese authorities say Friday’s airstrike killed at least seven women and three children and wounded dozens more, making it the deadliest assault on Beirut since the month-long 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack broke the group’s chain of command and killed Akil, who he said was responsible for the Israelis’ deaths.

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

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

Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war