Rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in central Israel on Saturday, Israeli emergency services said, after one of them hit a house, as prospects for a ceasefire dimmed.
Fighting has escalated between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hizbullah group since September, and hopes that a US push this week for a ceasefire have faded.
“We went out and saw dust, children screaming, women screaming and everyone went to the house that was struck,” said Qasim Mohab, a resident of Tira, where the rocket hit.
“We were able to evacuate and rescue those who were inside the house, and thank God we were blessed that there was no one killed.”
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Around the time the rockets hit, Hizbullah said it had targeted a military base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Israel's ambulance service said that 11 people were hurt by shrapnel. Air raid sirens continued to sound in northern Israel as rocket fire and drone attacks from Lebanon continued, the military said.
On Friday, Lebanon’s ministry for health said 52 people were killed in Israeli strikes on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has Unesco-listed Roman ruins.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed two Hizbullah commanders in the area of Tyre on Friday. There was no immediate comment from Hizbullah.
Iran-backed Hizbullah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the ministry for health in the Hamas-run enclave, and at least 2,897 people have been killed in Lebanon, its ministry for health said on Friday.
Seventy-one people in Israel and Israeli-occupied territories have been killed by Hizbullah’s fire, according to Israeli authorities.
Iran’s supreme leader has threatened both Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on the country and its allies.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials increasingly threatened to launch yet another strike against Israel after its October 26th attack on the Islamic Republic that targeted military bases and other locations, killing at least five people.
Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East.
Mr Khamenei said in a video released by Iranian state media: “The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation, and to the resistance front.”
The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the attack or the scope.
The 85-year-old had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed”.– Reuters