IDF hits Beirut after man killed, several hurt in rocket barrages on northern Israel

Army says over 100 rockets fired at Israel Saturday; Hezbollah command post destroyed in deepest incursion into Lebanon since start of war

By Emanuel Fabian,
ToI Staff and Agencies 19 October 2024, 6:32 pm Edit
Left: Israeli security forces at the scene where a missile fired from Lebanon hit a car in Acre, October 19, 2024. (Flash90). Right: Alexei Popov (Courtesy)
Left: Israeli security forces at the scene where a missile fired from Lebanon hit a car in Acre, October 19, 2024. (Flash90). Right: Alexei Popov (Courtesy)

A man was killed and at least 10 were injured as Hezbollah fired multiple rocket barrages on northern Israel on Saturday.

Israel struck terror targets in Beirut while ground troops carried out their deepest operation in Lebanon since the start of the incursion.

Alexei Popov, 51, from the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Haim, was pronounced dead from critical injuries sustained in a rocket attack near Acre, medics announced, as over 100 rockets were fired at the Haifa area and Western Galilee.

Popov had stopped his car by the roadside when he was hit by parts of an interceptor after it struck a rocket above the city.

Motorists are urged to exit their vehicles and lie down by the side of the road when sirens are heard.

A 28-year-old was listed in light-to-moderate condition after being hit by shrapnel in a direct impact on a home in Kiryat Ata, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

Alexei Popov, who was killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on October 19, 2024 (Courtesy)

Also at the scene, MDA said it treated a man and a woman in their 40s who were lightly hurt by the blast.

Five others were treated for acute anxiety, MDA added.

In another rocket strike on a road in the Western Galilee, MDA said four people were wounded, including a man in his 30s who was in moderate condition after being hit by shrapnel, and three others who were lightly hurt by the blast.

The IDF published footage of serious damage to a house in the northern border town of Shlomi, which was hit by a Hezbollah rocket during the attacks.

 

“Hezbollah fires rockets indiscriminately, and this is the result,” the military wrote in a post on X.

Deepest operation yet

The IDF said it has demolished a Hezbollah command center in its deepest operation yet in southern Lebanon.

Troops with the 98th Division raided the Hezbollah site, which the military said included surveillance equipment that observed Israeli towns in the Galilee Panhandle.

Soldiers also found explosive devices, weapons, and intelligence materials in the command center, the IDF added.

The military did not disclose where exactly in southern Lebanon the command center was located, or other details about it.

Troops with the 98th Division operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout image published October 19, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

Additionally, troops of the IDF’s 7th Armored Brigade located a cache of weapons and several Hezbollah tunnels in a school in southern Lebanon, the military said.

The IDF said Hezbollah embedded itself within the school in a village in southern Lebanon.

“At the complex, several tunnel shafts and caches of weapons were located and destroyed,” the military added.

Hezbollah weapons the IDF says troops found in a school in southern Lebanon, in a handout image published October 19, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

In the eastern Beqaa Valley region, four people including a local mayor were killed in an Israeli strike on a residential building in the town of Baloul, Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported.

The incident came days after the mayor of Nabatieh, a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli strike.

Lebanese media also reported Israeli strikes in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold known as Dahiyeh, shortly after the IDF called on Lebanese civilians near several buildings there to evacuate.

Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks on the country’s south, saying it was doing so in support of the Gaza-based terror group. Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

After nearly a year of cross-border Hezbollah attacks, Israel launched a major offensive against the terror group in September, decimating its leadership and crippling much of its capabilities.

This month, the IDF launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon to dismantle terror infrastructure that threatened communities near the border.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The attacks on northern Israel over the last year have resulted in the deaths of 29 civilians. In addition, 43 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 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 more than 1,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict.

Most Popular
read more: