Air raid sirens sounded in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after Hizbullah said it bombed the Nirit area in the city’s suburbs with missiles.
The Israeli military said about 20 rockets were fired in the latest barrage from Lebanon – five toward central Israel and 15 toward the north, and that attempts were made to intercept them. The Israel Defense Forces said there were no immediate reports of injuries.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. He is expected to meet top officials as the United States looks to revive ceasefire efforts after the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
The latest rocket fire came as Israel stepped up its strikes in Lebanon, targeting a Hizbullah-run financial institution, with the US pushing to resume ceasefire talks in Gaza following the death of Sinwar.
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At least 13 people were killed and 57 wounded in an Israeli strike on Monday just in front of the entrance of the Rafik Hariri University Hospitall, Beirut’s main government hospital, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
The attack was among 13 air strikes that hit south Beirut on Monday evening. The Israeli military claimed it was attacking facilities linked to Hizbullah.
Israel also accused Hizbullah of operating under Sahel hospital, not that far away, also in the southern suburbs of the capital. That hospital was being evacuated and has not been hit.
Israel has accused Hizbullah of keeping hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker under another hospital in the southern suburbs of Beirut, though it said it would not strike the complex.
The Sahel hospital in Dahiyeh was evacuated shortly afterwards, and Fadi Alame, its director, told Reuters that the allegations were untrue.
Israel did not provide evidence for its claim that cash was being kept under the hospital.
Sirens sounded in central Israel on Tuesday as a projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon and falling into open ground, the army said on Tuesday. Alerts sounded in the Samaria area and in Modi’in Illit, the Israeli military added in a statement.
Israel’s multilayered air defences have intercepted the vast majority of missiles and drones fired at it since the start of the Gaza war.
Mr Blinken’s latest trip – his 11th to the region since Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7th triggering the Gaza war – comes as the Israeli military has intensified its campaign in the Palestinian enclave as well as in Lebanon against Iran-aligned Hizbullah militia.
His planned weeklong trip, which will include a stop in Jordan on Wednesday and Doha, also comes as the region braces for Israel’s response to Iran’s October 1st ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The conflict between Israel and Hizbullah erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, at the start of the Gaza war.
It has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel bombing southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, killing many of Hizbullah’s top leaders, and sending ground troops across the border. Hizbullah for its part has fired rockets deeper into Israel. – Agencies