IDF launches fresh strikes on Tyre as Hezbollah rockets rain down on north

Israel targets terror infrastructure in Lebanese coastal city after issuing evacuation warning to residents; missiles trigger sirens in Haifa, Western Galilee, but no injuries reported

Smoke billows from the site of Israeli airstrikes on a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on October 28, 2024. (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
Smoke billows from the site of Israeli airstrikes on a neighborhood in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on October 28, 2024. (KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

Israeli airstrikes hit the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Monday after the IDF called for residents in large swaths of the ancient coastal city to evacuate, while Hezbollah rockets continued to rain down across northern Israel.

The IDF said following the strikes that the Hezbollah targets in Tyre included weapons depots, buildings used by the terror group, and observation posts belonging to various of its units.

“The Hezbollah terror organization advanced terror activities against Israeli citizens and IDF troops from these compounds,” the military said. It said Tyre is a major Hezbollah stronghold, especially for the terror group’s Aziz regional unit, from which it plans attacks on Israel.

The Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported “a series of strikes” on the coastal city, beginning with a raid on a residential apartment. An AFP video journalist reported thick clouds of smoke covering parts of Tyre, including rising from a building along the seafront.

The IDF had earlier told residents in parts of central Tyre to leave immediately, warning it would attack Hezbollah targets there. In a warning published on social media, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee warned residents that “Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act in the area you are in,” and stressed that “the IDF does not want to harm you.”

He published a map of the targeted areas, and instructed residents within the relevant areas to “immediately move away from the area marked in red, and head north to the Awali River.”

“Anyone who is near Hezbollah personnel, facilities and weapons of Hezbollah is putting their life in danger,” Adraee added.

The union of Tyre municipalities received a phone call in Arabic, apparently from the Israeli military, urging residents to evacuate several streets in the area, a municipal source told AFP. The NNA said the union instructed the civil defense and emergency personnel to use loudspeakers to urge residents to leave, “which created a state of panic.”

The strikes on Monday afternoon followed an air raid in the early hours of Monday morning in the center of the city that the Lebanese health ministry said killed seven people and wounded 17 others. The toll did not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

A building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP/Mohammad Zaatari)

Meanwhile, rockets and drones continued to target swaths of northern Israel throughout Monday with around 115 missiles fired as of mid-afternoon, after 90 rockets were launched on Sunday, according to the IDF. No injuries were reported Monday.

On Monday afternoon, five rockets were fired toward Haifa, setting off sirens across the city and several of its suburbs. The IDF said some of the rockets were intercepted while others struck open areas.

Earlier in the day, a barrage of some 30 rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Western Galilee, the IDF said. Some of the rockets were intercepted, while several impacts were also identified, the military said.

Drone sirens were also set off in the early morning in the areas of Rosh Hanikra and Shlomi. The IDF said it had successfully shot down a drone launched from Lebanon, and no injuries were reported.

A photo taken from the southern Lebanese city of Tyre shows a series of rockets launched from Lebanon towards Israel on October 17, 2024. (Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

Elsewhere in Lebanon, the Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet reported that a Lebanese army soldier had been injured in an Israeli strike near Kfar Dounine, in the Bint Jbeil district. There were no further details immediately available.

Hezbollah claimed on Monday that its gunmen had “ambushed… the Israeli enemy’s vehicles and soldiers as they advanced toward” the outskirts of the border village of Kfar Kila ahead of deadly clashes. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

The IDF said early Monday morning that its troops had continued to strike infrastructure and confiscate weapons belonging to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. The military said dozens of airstrikes hit terror cells and infrastructure, including a launcher used to fire rockets at Israel, and that dozens of Hezbollah operatives were killed in fighting over the past 24 hours.

Lebanon’s government claims that at least 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israel’s strikes and more than 2,600 have been killed over the last year — the vast majority in the last month. An AFP tally based on official figures puts the number at 1,634, but acknowledges gaps in the data. The IDF estimates that more than 2,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict.

Some 60,000 Israelis were evacuated from northern towns near 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.

The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 31 civilians. In addition, 60 IDF soldiers and reservists have been killed in cross-border skirmishes, including 34 of those killed during the ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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