Some 85 rockets were launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at the Haifa area in northern Israel on Sunday morning, following overnight launches at the Jezreel Valley, the terror group’s deepest rocket fire into Israel since the beginning of the war in October.
A teenager was killed when he crashed his vehicle as sirens sounded in the early hours of the morning, and at least three people were injured as a result of the rocket fire.
The military said that some of the rockets fired toward Haifa were intercepted, while others impacted Kiryat Bialik, a suburb of the northern coastal city, injuring three people.
The victims were a man in his 70s who was in moderate condition, and another man in his 70s and a 16-year-old girl who were lightly hurt. All three were taken to Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center for treatment.
One rocket hit a home in Moreshet in the Lower Galilee, causing significant damage but no injuries.
Sirens also sounded around the Sea of Galilee. There were no reports of injuries there.
In a statement, Hezbollah claimed that the rocket fire targeted a Rafael defense firm facility in the Haifa area.
The Iran-backed terror group said 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.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Hezbollah fired 24 rockets at the Jezreel Valley — the deepest rocket fire into northern Israel since October. According to the Israel Defense Forces, all of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses.
Large pieces of shrapnel fell in the Jezreel Valley following the interceptions, causing damage to a barn in one area and slightly wounding a man in another.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the barrage, claiming to have targeted the Israeli Air Force’s Ramat David Airbase, located some 50 kilometers from the Lebanon border, with dozens of rockets.
According to the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen network, the rockets were fired from an underground “Imad” missile base.
The expanded range of the rocket attacks put some two million Israelis — a fifth of the population — in range of the strikes. “Hundreds of thousands of people had to take refuge in bomb shelters” across northern Israel, military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told AFP after the strikes overnight and early in the morning.
In the wake of the rocket fire, the IDF said it was carrying out a new wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon while aerial defenses remained in a high state of alert.
“IDF strikes will continue and increase against the terrorist organization Hezbollah,” the military said.
On Saturday, the IDF carried out a wave of airstrikes against hundreds of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including rocket launchers, with the army saying it had identified preparations by the terror group to launch major rocket attacks against Israel.
Amid the fighting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant held security consultations with ministers and top defense officials on Saturday night, and Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar said the IAF was on the highest level of alert.
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