Woman, teen son seriously hurt in Hezbollah rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona

15-year-old boy, 47-year-old mother reported in serious condition, taken to hospital by chopper; terror group says attack response to Israeli airstrikes, to support Gazans

Security forces at the scene where a rocket fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon hit and injured two people in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, February 13, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
Security forces at the scene where a rocket fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon hit and injured two people in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, February 13, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)

Two people were seriously wounded when a rocket struck the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on Tuesday in an assault claimed by Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah.

The attack, which came in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on a Hezbollah site a day earlier, was one of several incidents in which projectiles were fired into northern Israel Tuesday morning, and came hours after France announced a proposal aimed at calming the restive frontier.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 15-year-old boy and a 47-year-old woman were in serious condition after being injured by the rocket, which landed on a street in the largely evacuated city.

The two, a mother and son according to Hebrew media reports, were evacuated by helicopter to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital, where doctors managed to stabilize them, the medical center said.

Hezbollah said the attack came in retaliation for an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Talloussa on Monday, in which at least two members of the Iran-backed terror group were killed.

Sirens had sounded in the northern city as the projectiles were fired from Lebanon.

Security forces at the scene where a rocket fired by the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon hit and injured two people in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, February 13, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90

After the attack on Kiryat Shmona, the IDF said it carried out strikes on Hezbollah positions, including buildings where members of the terror group were operating.

Sites hit by fighter jets in the south Lebanon towns of Houla, Qalaat Debba, Yaroun, Meiss al-Jabal, Yarine, and Chihine included several buildings, observation posts, and other Hezbollah infrastructure, according to the IDF.

Another site used by Hezbollah was also struck in the town of Ramyeh, and troops also shelled areas in south Lebanon with artillery, the IDF added.

Earlier on Tuesday, several rockets fired from Lebanon hit the northern town of Margaliot, though no sirens sounded in the area. Ynet news reported that there were no casualties, though a number of impact sites were identified and some chicken coops sustained damage.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in six civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of nine IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 193 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 29 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and at least 19 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.

Mourners shout anti-Israel slogans, as they carry the coffin of senior Hezbollah commander Wissam Tawil during his funeral procession in the village of Khirbet Selm, south Lebanon, January 9, 2024. The elite Hezbollah commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike Monday in southern Lebanon fought for the group for decades. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

On Monday, a Lebanese security source told AFP that a local Hezbollah official was seriously wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.

Hezbollah later announced the death of four of its fighters “on the road to Jerusalem” — the phrase the group has been using to refer to terrorists killed by Israeli fire since hostilities began.

Two of the group’s fighters were killed in the Talloussa strike, while it was unclear where the other two were killed.

Separately, the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad whose fighters are present in Lebanon, said two of its members were killed Monday.

They died “at the border with occupied Palestine, in the south of Lebanon,” said a statement from the group, which is fighting in Gaza as an ally of Hamas.

A handout picture provided by Hezbollah’s media office on Monday showed the terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah meeting with Islamic Jihad head Ziad al-Nakhala at an undisclosed location in Lebanon.

This handout picture provided by Hezbollah’s media office on February 12, 2024 shows the Lebanese terror group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah (R) meeting with Ziad al-Nakhala (Ziyad Nakhaleh), Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, at an undisclosed location in Lebanon. (Hezbollah’s Media Office/AFP)

War erupted in Gaza after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 250 hostages, mostly civilians. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 360 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.

Israel has warned it will no longer tolerate the presence of Hezbollah along the Lebanon frontier, where it could attempt to carry out an attack similar to the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7.

Since that date, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, though they have attempted to limit the scope of the attacks in an apparent bid to avoid all-out war.

France has delivered a written proposal to Beirut aimed at ending the hostilities and settling the disputed Lebanon-Israel frontier, according to a document seen by Reuters this week that calls for Hezbollah and other groups to withdraw 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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