Woman killed in Hezbollah attack on north; 5 hurt by missile fragments near Tel Aviv
A woman was killed and at least 17 people were wounded in several rocket barrages fired by Hezbollah on Monday, as the terror group launched more than 100 rockets at northern Israel and one missile at the country’s center throughout the day.
The woman, identified as Safaa Awad, 41, was killed and dozens of others wounded in the evening by a rocket that hit a three-story building in the northern town of Shfar’am after Hezbollah fired five projectiles at the Galilee.
Among the wounded victims were a woman aged 41 and a 4-year-old boy in serious condition, Rambam Hospital in Haifa said.
The medical center said a total of 56 victims were brought for treatment, mostly for acute anxiety. Among the victims were 18 children, the hospital adds.
The Israel Defense Forces said interceptor missiles were launched to counter the attack, and it was investigating the impact.
Medics said the woman was trapped inside the building and recovered by rescue services, but declared dead shortly afterward. The other people were lightly hurt by broken glass, according to first responders.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said the woman was inside a “protected space” at the time of the attack. It was unclear if MDA was referring to a bomb shelter or some other kind of protected area in the building.
Also on Monday night, five people were wounded, including one seriously, in the Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan area, following a Hezbollah missile attack on central Israel, medics said.
MDA said it took a 54-year-old woman in serious condition, another person in moderate condition, and three others in good condition to Beilinson Hospital.
The victims were all hit by shrapnel, according to the emergency service.
The IDF said one missile was fired from Lebanon in the attack, which was intercepted by air defenses.
Fragments from the interception impacted between the two Tel Aviv suburbs, causing a fire and extensive damage to surrounding buildings and vehicles. The IDF later confirmed both the injuries and damage were caused by fragments of an intercepted missile.
“A preliminary investigation of the air defense systems found that the interceptor hit a surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon at a high altitude, and broke it into several pieces,” the IDF said in a statement.
“As a result of the interception, part of the missile hit the ground and caused damage and casualties,” the military says, adding that the incident is under further investigation.
Earlier Monday, two people were wounded in separate rocket barrages targeting northern Israel, as the IDF continued to strike sites belonging to the terror group in Lebanon and Beirut shut down its schools.
A 34-year-old man was lightly wounded by the blast of a rocket impact in the Western Galilee during one Hezbollah volley, medics reported. MDA said the man was taken to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
In a separate barrage, MDA said a 65-year-old woman was hit in the neck by shrapnel as rockets struck the area of Fassuta, a Christian Arab village. She was also taken to the hospital in Nahariya.
Another person was treated for acute anxiety, MDA added.
According to the IDF, many of the 100-plus rockets were intercepted or fell in open areas. Some of the rockets impacted in towns, causing damage to a building in the border city of Kiryat Shmona and a chicken coop in Margaliot, a moshav.
In addition to the rocket attacks, the IDF said Monday that it had shot down three drones launched from Lebanon at northern Israel.
Overnight and throughout the morning rocket sirens sporadically went off in Kiryat Shmona, the coastal city of Nahariya, and other communities in the Galilee Panhandle near the border with Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reported new strikes early Monday on locations around south Lebanon, long a stronghold of Hezbollah. Local media said jets hit the Nabatieh area, which the IDF also attacked earlier this week.
It came after a relatively rare night in which the IDF did not carry out strikes.
On Monday evening, Lebanese media reported an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut. At least four people were killed and 18 others were injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The strike was reported in the Zuqaq al-Blat district, outside of Hezbollah’s Dahiyeh stronghold in southern Beirut.
Meanwhile, schools in Beirut were closed after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital the day before killed six people, according to local authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and Hezbollah fighters. The IDF said it killed Hezbollah’s spokesman, Mohammed Afif, the latest in a string of top figures in the group slain in the war. Hezbollah confirmed his death and later said four other members of its media office were killed alongside him.
Sunday’s strikes hit districts of central Beirut that had so far been spared. The strikes prompted the education ministry to shut schools and higher education institutions in the Beirut area for two days.
Israel escalated its bombardment of Hezbollah strongholds in late September, vowing to secure its northern border with Lebanon to allow tens of thousands of Israelis displaced by over a year of Hezbollah cross-border rocket and drone fire to return home safely. Israeli forces have also been operating on the ground in Lebanon to clear the border area.
Dozens of Hezbollah launchers and rockets were located and destroyed by reservists of the 226th Paratroopers Brigade during recent operations in southern Lebanon, the IDF said Monday.
The military said the reserve brigade has been operating in an area from which Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in the past year. The troops located several multiple-rocket launchers and mortar positions, along with caches of rockets and other equipment. They also located a tunnel system dug into a mountain in the area. Inside the tunnel, the troops found weapons, equipment, and food used by Hezbollah operatives, according to the IDF.
Caught between the two warring sides, UN peacekeepers reported Sunday that they were attacked, with minor damage caused but no injuries.
In a post to social media platform X, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon wrote that on Saturday a patrol involving French and Finnish peacekeepers in the village of Bedias encountered “a denial of freedom of movement from a group of individuals with at least one of them armed.”
The patrol continued but an hour later, when it reached the village of Maarakeh, it was fired at about 40 times from the rear, “likely from non-state actor members.”
The patrol reached the safety of a UNIFIL base in Deir Kifa, where it found some of its vehicles had been struck by bullets, though there were no injuries.
“It is unacceptable that UNIFIL peacekeepers while conducting Security Council-mandated tasks, are routinely targeted,” UNIFIL said. “It is the responsibility of Lebanese authorities to ensure that UNIFIL peacekeepers can carry out their mandated tasks without fear or threats.”
Nonetheless, it urged “all actors to ongoing hostilities… to avoid actions putting UN peacekeepers in danger.” The peacekeepers have on previous occasions suffered deaths or injuries due to the fighting but have rejected an Israeli plea that they leave south Lebanon.
According to a Lebanese political source, US envoy Amos Hochstein was set to travel to the Lebanese capital Beirut on Tuesday for talks on a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.
However, a diplomatic official clarified to The Times of Israel that as of Sunday night, no final decision had been made on Hochstein coming to the region, adding that a decision would be made based on progress in ceasefire talks.
Talk of another visit by Hochstein followed reports in Lebanese media that a positive response to the ceasefire proposal had been submitted.
The New York Times reported over the weekend that Hezbollah’s Iranian backers had sent messages to the group saying that they supported an end to war.
Israel widened the focus of its war from Gaza to Lebanon nearly a year into the conflict in Gaza, which was sparked by the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s massive October 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In support of its Palestinian ally, Hezbollah began launching rocket and drone strikes on Israel the day after the attack, forcing about 60,000 Israelis to flee their homes. The fighting escalated amid Israeli reprisals until eventually it exploded into open war.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 43 civilians. In addition, 70 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Source » timesofisrael.com
