Several Israelis hurt by relentless Hezbollah fire as 250 rockets fired at north, center
Woman wounded when car catches fire after rocket impact in Petah Tikvah; residential buildings damaged in Haifa amid heavy barrage; IDF strikes in Beirut
Several people were wounded by rocket fire on Sunday as the Hezbollah terror group fired more than 250 rockets and drones at northern and central Israel in several salvos throughout the day, according to the military and medics.
In northern Israel, a man in his 60s was hit by shrapnel to the stomach while working in a field in the Kfar Blum area, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. He was seriously injured, and taken to Ziv Hospital in Safed for treatment.
In Haifa, two men in their fifties were lightly hurt by shrapnel during a rocket barrage on the northern port city, MDA said, and one other person was being treated for acute anxiety.
The barrage also caused damage to a residential building in the area.
Earlier on Sunday, a woman in her 50s was lightly injured by shrapnel following rocket fire on the Western Galilee at around 7:30 a.m.
The rocket impact also caused damage to a factory in the northern town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha.
The IDF said that some 30 rockets and drones were launched in the early morning attack, some of which were intercepted by air defenses.
The military said two of the drones were intercepted and “additional interception attempts were made,” but did not specify how many apparently crashed. It said the incident ended with no immediate reports of injuries as a result of the drones.
Minutes later, rocket sirens blared in cities and towns north of Tel Aviv, including in Netanya and Herzliya.
The IDF later said that six rockets had been fired toward the center of the country from Lebanon, five of which were intercepted by aerial defenses. The sixth rocket struck an open area, although there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
A second barrage of eight rockets was fired at central Israel at around 1:00 p.m., one of which impacted in the city of Petah Tikvah and another in the agricultural community of Rinatya.
Central Israel was again targeted in the evening with several missiles fired, some intercepted while others fell in open areas.
In the aftermath of the strike in Petah Tikva, Magen David Adom said it was treating a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation due to a car that caught fire as a result of the impact. The woman was said to be in moderate condition.
Several other people were receiving treatment for acute anxiety and minor injuries sustained while running to shelter, medics said.
Heavy damage was also sustained to homes in Rinatya after a rocket struck there.
The owners of one of the houses were not home at the time, Channel 12 reported, as they were on a tour of Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the south, which was one of the hardest-hit communities in the October 7 Hamas onslaught.
Relatives of the couple told the outlet that the home had no reinforced area and that the elderly couple would have not been able to shelter had they been home during the attack.
Most of the remaining rockets fired at the center of the country were intercepted, and the military said it was investigating possible damage caused by shrapnel following the interceptions.
Amid the heavy rocket fire from Lebanon, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee issued evacuation warnings for two buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs, ahead of airstrikes on Hezbollah assets.
A short while later, reports in Lebanese media indicated that Israel was carrying out strikes in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Elsewhere in Lebanon, IDF said that it had also struck the Hezbollah launcher that was used in the attack on Haifa earlier on Sunday, and released footage of the strike.
The IDF says it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher used in an attack earlier today on the Haifa area. pic.twitter.com/fStbIyQcwT
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 24, 2024
In a separate incident on Sunday, one Lebanese Armed Forces soldier was killed and 18 others were injured, some seriously, after an Israeli strike on an army center n the town of Al-Amiriya on the Al-Qalila-Tyre road in southern Lebanon.
The LAF said that the attack caused severe damage to the facility.
After probing the incident, the IDF apologized for the strike.
“The incident took place in an area where fighting is ongoing against the Hezbollah terror organization,” the Israeli military said in response to a query by The Times of Israel.
“The IDF regrets the incident and clarifies that it is fighting in a targeted manner against the Hezbollah terror organization, and not against the Lebanese Army,” the military said, adding that the incident is under further investigation.
Earlier on Sunday, the IDF confirmed reports that it had launched airstrikes at the Jusiyah Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanon border Saturday night, after it was being used by Hezbollah to transport weapons.
The crossing had been struck already once before by the IDF, last month. The military said fighter jets hit military infrastructure in the vicinity of the crossing, which it said were used by the Hezbollah terror organization to transfer weapons from Syria to Lebanon.
Israel has struck several other crossings between Lebanon and Syria in recent months, amid efforts by Iran to supply Hezbollah with weapons.
מטוסי קרב, בהכוונת אגף המודיעין, תקפו אמש, באופן ממוקד, תשתיות צבאיות סמוכות למעבר הגבול ג׳וסיה שבצפון הבקעא. תשתיות אלו משמשות את ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה להעברת אמצעי לחימה מסוריה ללבנון.
ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה מנצל מעברים אזרחיים, בהם מעבר ג’וסיה, להעברת אמצעי לחימה שמקורם באיראן… pic.twitter.com/JqMsUE7hmY
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) November 24, 2024
On Saturday, Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed over 55 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, whose tolls do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
One strike conducted without warning on a central Beirut building killed at least 20 people and wounded scores more, Lebanese officials said.
A Lebanese security source told AFP that the central Beirut strike had “targeted a leading Hezbollah figure,” but a Hezbollah lawmaker, Amin Sherri, denied to Lebanese media that any official was present at the time of the attack.
Israeli airstrikes also hit eastern Lebanon, killing 24 people ,including 13 in the town of Shmostar overlooking the Beqaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.
In Lebanon’s south, at least 14 were killed including five in the coastal city of Tyre, the health ministry said.
Late Saturday night, the IDF said that a drone launched from Lebanon was shot down by air defenses off the coast of Haifa, and that no sirens were activated as the drone did not get close to population centers, the IDF added.
Since October 8, 2023, 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.
Hezbollah has since expanded its attacks to also target cities in central and northern Israel with rockets, in addition to the attacks on the border.
Israel stepped up its offensive on Hezbollah in Lebanon in late September, launching extensive strikes and operations that took out most of the group’s leadership, including its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel then launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon, with the aim of clearing Hezbollah strongholds in the area and making it safe for evacuated residents of northern Israel to return to their homes.
In recent days, heavy ground fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has continued in southern Lebanon, with Israeli troops pushing farther from the border.
Still, in the past week Israeli and American officials have expressed guarded optimism about the possibility of securing a ceasefire, after US envoy Amos Hochstein made visits to both Beirut and Jerusalem to discuss terms. A senior Israeli defense official has said there is a high likelihood of a deal.
On Friday afternoon, Channel 12 published details on what it said were the remaining points of contention between Israel and Hezbollah, namely the formation of an international committee that will monitor a deal’s implementation, as well as a number of border demarcation disputes. The network said Israel was demanding language in the agreement that would allow it to unilaterally choose not to engage in negotiations over disputed points.
A senior official told the channel that “most of the details have been agreed upon, but what remains open is very sensitive and could still derail the agreement.”
As of last month, the IDF estimated that over 12,400 rockets and drones have been fired at Israel from Lebanon during the war. The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 44 civilians.
In addition, 71 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,670 people and injured 15,413 in Lebanon since October 2023, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Saturday.
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.
