Hezbollah rains rockets on Haifa as deputy leader claims capabilities intact
More than 100 rockets fired in largest assault yet on port city, 1 hurt by shrapnel, several homes hit; in first, terror leader says group could consider truce not linked to Gaza
Hezbollah pelted Haifa with rockets on Tuesday in the heaviest attack yet on the northern Israeli port city, as the Lebanese terror group insisted its military capabilities “were fine” despite weeks of devastating IDF strikes.
More than 100 rockets were fired at the city within half an hour around midday. Most of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system, although some got through, exploding in the Haifa suburbs of Kiryat Yam and Kiryat Motzkin, security services said.
Magen David Adom medics said a women in her 70s was wounded in the arm by falling shrapnel. She was listed in good-to-moderate condition and taken to the hospital for treatment.
The blue skies above the city were filled with white trails of the interceptor rockets rising to meet the incoming barrages, and explosions mushroomed above Haifa as sirens wailed and thousands of Israelis ran for bomb shelters.
Impacts were felt in several neighborhoods, with damage being caused to homes, police said, calling on residents to continue to follow emergency instructions and take shelter when sirens sound.
The military said that there was no change in guidelines for civilians at this stage.
The salvos came as the IDF announced that it was carrying out strikes against Hezbollah targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs. It did not immediately provide further details.
The large-scale attack also came moments after Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem, one of the last surviving members of the group’s top leadership, insisted that Hezbollah’s military capabilities were intact, that it had increased its rocket fire on Israel, and that it was itching for “clashes” with Israeli troops in Lebanon.
“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” Qassem said in a video address, speaking from an undisclosed location. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines.”
He said Hezbollah’s top leadership was directing the war and that the commanders killed by Israel had been replaced. “We have no vacant posts,” he added.
He said that Hezbollah will name a new leader to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a bunker in Beirut last month, “but the circumstances are difficult because of the war.”
Speaking Tuesday afternoon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, who was in line to replace Nasrallah, was likely killed in an airstrike in Beirut last week.
“Hezbollah is an organization without a leader, Nasrallah was eliminated, his replacement was probably also eliminated. This has a dramatic effect on everything that happens. There is no one to make decisions, no one to act,” Gallant said during a visit to the IDF Northern Command, adding that Hezbollah’s firepower capabilities have also taken a heavy blow.
Qassem, meanwhile, claimed that Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the campaign, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border, with the army saying it is seeking to secure that area to allow evacuated northern Israeli residents to return home safely.
Qassem asserted that rather than residents returning, even more Israelis will be displaced by the fighting.
A ceasefire not linked to Gaza?
Qassem also said that Hezbollah supports efforts to reach a ceasefire for Lebanon, but for the first time omitted any mention of a Gaza truce deal as a precondition to halting his group’s fire on Israel.
Qassem said Hezbollah supported efforts by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of the group, to secure a halt to fighting, which has escalated in recent weeks, with Israeli ground incursions and the killing of many of Hezbollah’s top leaders, including Nasrallah.
“We support the political activity being led by Berri under the title of a ceasefire,” Qassem said in a 30-minute televised address.
“In any case, after the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be made,” he said. “If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide.”
Hezbollah began launching missiles at Israel exactly a year ago in support of its ally Hamas following the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Hezbollah’s top leaders have repeatedly stated over the last year that the group would not stop its fire until a Gaza ceasefire was reached, but Qassem’s address appeared to mark a departure from that policy.
Israel stepped up its strikes on Hezbollah in recent weeks as it seeks to push the terror group away from the border in accordance with a 2006 UN resolution.
Israeli strikes have hit the terror group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs on a nightly basis, and ground incursions expanded on Tuesday to additional parts of Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, including along the Mediterranean coast.
Tuesday’s assault on Haifa came after Israel said earlier it had killed another top Hezbollah official in a targeted strike on Beirut.
Israel’s raids have focused on Hezbollah’s “centers of gravity” in southern Lebanon villages, where troops have so far found massive amounts of weapons, military sources said. Israel has said Hezbollah was planning a large-scale October 7-style attack on northern communities to massacre and kidnap Israeli civilians.
The IDF has said its operations in southern Lebanon will expand as needed, but that it still intends to end them as quickly as possible — within a few weeks.
The escalation followed Israel’s decision last month to make the return of northern residents to their homes an official war aim. Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, out of fear Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack.
Attacks on northern Israel have resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians in Israel. In addition 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Two soldiers in northern Israel have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 516 members — including Nasrallah — who have been killed by Israel during the war, mostly in Lebanon but also some in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed.
These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began its new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including the ground operation in which the military says at least 440 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.