Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel amid strikes on Gaza

JERUSALEM, Israel – The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets and several drones into northern Israel on Saturday, October 19, killing one person, with one drone directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s holiday home, according to his spokesperson.

The volley from the Iran-backed Lebanese group came as health officials in Gaza, where Israel has been battling Palestinian militant group Hamas for more than a year, said Israeli strikes had killed more than 30 people across the territory.

Pledges from Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fighting in Gaza and Lebanon have dashed hopes that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might hasten an end to more than a year of escalating war in the Middle East.

Sinwar, a mastermind of the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the Gaza war, was killed by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.

Israel also tightened a siege around hospitals in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and preventing medical and food supplies from entering.

Israel has been pounding Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, in what it says is an effort to stop Hamas fighters regrouping. It said troops had been briefed to on mitigating harm to civilians and medical infrastructure.

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.

Witnesses described passengers running from a car after a blast, then seeing the charred remains of one passenger after a second blast.

The Israeli military was looking into the report of the strike, 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’

At least four Israeli strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday afternoon, according to Reuters witnesses, after an Israeli military spokesperson issued warnings on social media platform X for two locations in the area.

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 spokesperson 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.

Later, Israeli media published a video of Netanyahu walking in a park. “Nothing will deter us, we will keep going until victory,” he said in the video filmed by one of his aides.

Stalled talks

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began in Gaza last October.

Nearly three weeks ago, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilize the border region for its citizens who had fled the fighting.

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.

In their attack on October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostage, 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 US 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. The European Union’s foreign policy chief echoed those comments on Saturday.

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. – Rappler.com