Mourners duck for cover amid sirens at funeral for teen killed by Hezbollah rocket
Troops raid Hezbollah base near UNIFIL site that contains tunnel shafts, rocket launchers; IDF says strikes in coastal city of Tyre targeted gathering of Hezbollah operatives
Mourners attending a funeral on Friday for Sivan Sade, 18, who was killed by a Hezbollah rocket earlier this week, had to fall to the ground and brace for impact when a siren, warning of another attack, sounded amid the ceremony in the northern kibbutz of Kfar Masasryk.
More than 50 rockets in total were fired at Israel from Lebanon on Friday, according to the IDF, as well as a number of drones.
A man in his 40s was also moderately injured, after he fell from a ladder when sirens sounded, in the lower Galilee.
One of the projectiles struck a home in the northern Arab town of Kafr Yasif, causing heavy damage but no casualties.
Many of the projectiles fired at Israel were intercepted, but a number of impacts were also reported, mostly in open areas.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops continued to operate against the Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon, where the IDF located a Hezbollah training facility positioned some 200 meters (219 yards) from a base for UNIFIL, the United Nations observer force there.
A Hezbollah rocket caused heavy damage to a home in the northern Arab town of Kafr Yasif a short while ago.
There are no injuries, according to medics.
Five rockets were launched from Lebanon in the attack, four of which were intercepted by air defenses according to the IDF. pic.twitter.com/8DPlmuPbuz
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 8, 2024
Reservists with the Oded Brigade raided the Hezbollah site, which the IDF said was used by the terror group for training, studying combat theory and storing weapons.
The military said the troops found Hezbollah documents and textbooks, maps of Israel, guides of IDF vehicles, as well as tunnel shafts and weapons at the site.
In the area of the facility, the IDF said the soldiers also found rocket launchers that were primed for attacks on Israel. The weapons were confiscated and the facility was demolished, the IDF added.
UNIFIL claimed Friday that the Israeli military’s “deliberate and direct destruction” of its property was a “flagrant violation” of international law.
It said that Israeli military excavators and one bulldozer had destroyed part of a fence and concrete structure at a UN peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon located a Hezbollah training facility, which was positioned some 200 meters from a UNIFIL base.
Reservists with the Oded Brigade raided the Hezbollah site, which the IDF says was used by the terror group for training, studying combat… pic.twitter.com/jBHB8ugUz4
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 8, 2024
The Lebanese health ministry said at least three people were killed and 30 others wounded on Friday in Israeli strikes on the southern city of Tyre.
The official National News Agency said the strikes targeted three buildings in the city and caused heavy damage to neighboring apartment blocks.
It said Israel had issued no evacuation warning ahead of the strikes.
The IDF later said it struck several Hezbollah command rooms where operatives were gathered. The Hezbollah sites were located “in the heart of a civilian population,” according to the military.
The IDF in a statement said that “Hezbollah systematically takes control of civilian areas and infrastructures throughout the country and embeds commanders and operatives in civilian areas in order to plan and carry out terror attacks, putting Lebanese civilians in harms way.”
Separately, the IDF said dozens of Hezbollah operatives were killed during fighting in southern Lebanon on Friday, and rocket launchers used in an attack on the Acre area were hit in airstrikes.
Several weapon depots and other buildings used by Hezbollah were also struck in southern Lebanon today, the military added.
Late Friday, Lebanese media reported a series of Israeli airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs — a known Hezbollah stronghold — after the IDF called to evacuate six sites in the area.
Earlier, NNA said that Israeli forces also detonated explosives planted inside houses in three border villages.
“Since this morning, the Israeli enemy’s army has been carrying out bombing operations inside the villages of Yaroun, Aitaroun and Maroun al-Ras in the Bint Jbeil area, with the aim of destroying residential homes there,” the official National News Agency said.
Israeli forces also conducted a raid in the nearby town of Bint Jbeil, NNA said, after Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in the flashpoint border region.
The Iran-backed terror group has claimed eight operations since Wednesday targeting Israeli troops on the outskirts of Maroun al-Ras.
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.
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.
The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 41 civilians. In addition, 62 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 some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel amid the fighting, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September.