The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired about five rockets toward the northern Israeli city of Haifa late on Sunday, according to Israeli police. Eight persons were injured and structural damage was caused. This is the first time that Haifa has been attacked since Israel and Hezbollah’s conflict in 2006. A representative for the Haifa municipality acknowledged the strike and said that two city areas had sustained damage. One of the rockets landed in the western section of Haifa, close to a supermarket and apartment buildings, near a roundabout. Verify sources claim that the impact moment was caught on camera by CCTV.
Israeli Response and Failures in Defense Systems
Certain bullets were not caught despite defensive procedures including air raid sirens. Recognizing that their air defense system was unable to intercept every rocket, the Israeli military said they were looking into the situation. The head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was murdered by an Israeli bombing last month, and it is alleged that the rockets were fired in response. A military base south of Haifa was the objective of the strike, according to Hezbollah, who claimed responsibility for it. Eliran Tal, the municipal spokeswoman for Haifa, refuted this assertion, stating that it was “an attack on civilian population.” Tal pointed out that 95% of Haifa’s 280,000 inhabitants remain put despite the city being under rocket threat. He declared his faith in the ability of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to repel the enemy.
Broader Escalation Along the Border
One person was injured when a second round of rockets fell on Tiberias, east of Haifa, near the Sea of Galilee, at the same time as the Haifa incident. Hezbollah fired more than 135 rockets into northern Israel on Sunday, according to the IDF. As part of their ongoing operation in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers launched airstrikes against Hezbollah locations in Beirut simultaneously. The hostilities worsened when Hezbollah began launching rockets into Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Palestinians after Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel. Hezbollah has suffered significant losses, but it has not wavered, announcing its confidence in fending off Israeli “aggression.”