4.5-magnitude tremor felt in Israel amid uptick in seismic activity

The Israel Geological Institute said a 4.5-magnitude tremor was recorded in the country on Wednesday morning, for the second time this week.

The Geological Institute said that the quake’s epicenter was located off the Lebanese coast, 81 kilometers northwest of the Israeli coastal city of Nahariya.

The shake was reportedly felt by residents mostly in the north of the country, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

“I was at home. Just as I sat down in my office and opened my laptop, suddenly the chair shook underneath me for a few seconds, which felt very long,” one Haifa resident told Channel 12, noting that their building had recently been reinforced.

On Monday, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit the already disaster-struck Turkey-Syrian border region, also shaking Israel.

The quake hit the town of Defne at 8:04 p.m. (7:04 p.m. Israel time), and was strongly felt by residents in the surrounding region.

Reports said the aftershock killed at least six people, and trapped others under rubble.

The death toll was said to be relatively low due to the local population already having evacuated the area following the far more destructive earthquake that devastated the region on February 6.

The death toll from that earthquake, which registered at 7.8 on the Richter scale, has climbed past 47,000.