BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced it fired a barrage of missiles at a military base deep inside Israel early Sunday following an Israeli airstrike a day earlier that killed at least 37 people, including one of the militant group's senior leaders as well as women and children.
It was not immediately clear if any rockets hit their target. Israel's emergency medical services reported that a man was lightly wounded by shrapnel from a missile that was intercepted in a village in the lower Galilee.
Sajjan Gohel, the international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, discusses Hezbollah's role in Lebanon and its influence on the country's Shia population amid escalating tensions with Israel.
Local media reported that rockets shot from Lebanon were intercepted in the areas of Haifa and Nazareth. The Israeli military said only that it monitored the launch of "about ten rockets" from Lebanon, of which most were intercepted.
Hezbollah said it launched "dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles" — a new type of weapon the group had not used before — at the Ramat David airbase, southeast of Haifa, "in response to the repeated Israeli attacks that targeted various Lebanese regions and led to the fall of many civilian martyrs."
A car passes next to a fire after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Saturday.
Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire Saturday as rescue crews in Beirut searched the rubble of an apartment building that was leveled by the Israeli strike the prior day.
Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of apparently remotely detonated explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members earlier this past week, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding about 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which did not confirm or deny responsibility.
Emergency workers use excavators to clear rubble Saturday at the site of the prior day's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs.
On Friday, an Israeli airstrike took down an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed was Ibrahim Akil, a top Hezbollah official who commanded the group's special forces unit the Radwan Force. Also killed was Ahmed Wahbi, a top commander in the group's military wing, the Israeli military said.
Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday's airstrike on the building. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.
It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the bruising monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah, and the casualty count could grow, with 23 people still missing, a government official said.
Israeli firefighters work at a house that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday.
Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said the attack thwarted the group's chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths.
Akil was wanted by the U.S. for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Wahbi was described as a commander who played major roles within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in southern Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the "field commanders" during a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead.
Hezbollah fighters carry the coffins of their comrades who were killed in Friday's Israeli strike, during their funeral procession in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday.
Hezbollah announced overnight that 15 of its operatives were killed by Israeli forces. Meanwhile, Israeli army spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Saturday 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Friday's strike.
Israel and Hezbollah engaged in heavy back-and-forth strikes on Saturday. The Israeli military confirmed that about 90 rockets had been fired at northern Israel and that Israel had struck more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon during the day.
Expecting a surge in rocket attacks, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli defense spokesman, announced updated safety guidelines for areas north of Haifa, including caps on gatherings of 30 people in open spaces and 300 in enclosed spaces. Work and school can continue if people can reach protected areas in a timely manner. Sunday classes were canceled in at least two border regions.
Relatives of the victims react Saturday near the site of the prior day's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs.
The Biden administration took a more hands-off approach than usual amid the recent dramatic escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, with top U.S. officials holding back from full-on crisis diplomacy for fear of making matters worse.
The developments threaten to spur all-out war in the Middle East and doom already faltering negotiations for a cease-fire in the Hamas conflict in Gaza.
The escalation came even as two Biden administration officials stopped in the region this past week to appeal for calm. It heightens the impression that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government is paying ever less attention to the mediation efforts of its key ally, despite depending on the U.S. for weapons and military support.
Lebanon - September 21, 2024 Massive strikes carried by the Israeli army in Southern Lebanon.
“The United States looks like a deer in the headlights right now,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington. “In terms of words, deeds and action … it's not driving events, it's reacting to events.”
Earlier this past week, Israel's security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah's attacks on the country's north, which would allow displaced residents to return to their homes, is now an official war goal, as Israel considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel since sent a powerful fighting force to its northern border.
Israel and Hezbollah traded fire regularly since Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military's devastating offensive in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will halt its strikes only when a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.
