BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as the sides appeared to be spiraling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions.
The rocket barrage overnight sent thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas,” pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.
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BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as the sides appeared to be spiraling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions.
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces work at a house hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers carry the flag-draped casket of reservist Major Nael Fwarsy, one of two soldiers killed by a Lebanese drone attack on northern Israel, during his funeral in Maghar, Israel, Friday, Sept 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
An Israeli police officer examines the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli firefighters plane uses a fire retardant to extinguish a fire after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an open area near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli firefighters work at a house that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo//Leo Correa)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
People look at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah’s top leaders as well as women and children. The militant group was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of personal devices to explode just days earlier.
Here’s the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip killed at least seven people, Palestinians officials said.
The Israeli military said it carried out a precise strike Sunday on Hamas militants who had sheltered at the school and accused them of endangering civilians.
The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, confirmed the toll. It did not say whether those killed were fighters or civilians.
The school is in Shati, a built-up refugee camp in Gaza City dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israeli forces have launched repeated incursions there during the nearly yearlong war with Hamas.
Gaza’s schools closed after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel ignited the war, and most have been transformed into shelters. Around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced, often multiple times.
Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but it rarely comments on individual strikes, which often kill women and children.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has dealt Hezbollah “blows that it did not imagine” after days of intense strikes on Lebanon.
In a video statement released by his office, Netanyahu said that if the militant group “did not get the message, I promise you, it will get the message.”
Netanyahu reiterated that Israel was determined to return its displaced citizens in the north, adding: “No country can tolerate fire on its residents, fire on its cities. And the state of Israel will not tolerate it either. We will do everything necessary to restore security.”
JERUSALEM — The Israeli defense minister says the steps taken against Hezbollah will continue until residents of Israel’s north can return to their homes, saying "we will do everything necessary to achieve it.”
Yoav Gallant was on a visit to the command and control center of the Israeli Air Force when he said the Lebanese militant group “has started to sense some of the capabilities" of the Israeli army and that "they sense they are being pursued, and we are seeing the results.”
He also called the operations conducted by the Israeli air force “very impressive, both defensively and offensively.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israeli troops have raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The troops ordered the bureau to shut down early Sunday amid a widening campaign by Israel targeting the Qatar-funded broadcaster as it covers the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera aired footage of Israeli troops live on its Arabic-language channel ordering the office to be shut for 45 days. It follows an extraordinary order issued in May that saw Israeli police raid Al Jazeera’s broadcast position in East Jerusalem, seizing equipment there, preventing its broadcasts in Israel and blocking its websites. The broadcaster has continued operating in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon has urged calm in the Middle East as Israel and Hezbollah continued to trade fire on Sunday, raising fears of a regional war.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote in a post on X.
Hennis-Plasschaert has earlier criticized the attack that saw thousands of devices explode in Lebanon and warned that it marks “an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context.”
BEIRUT, Lebanon — An umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militias, the Islamic Resistance, says it has launched drones targeting a military base in Israel.
The attack comes amid escalating fire exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, heightening fears of a broadening conflict.
The Israeli military says it intercepted multiple aerial devices approaching Israel from the direction of Iraq. It added that the targets did not cross into Israeli territory and no injuries were reported.
Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq have claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Israel multiple times since the outbreak of the war in Gaza almost a year ago.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The death toll following an Israeli strike on a southern Beirut suburb has risen to 45, Lebanon’s health ministry says, as search operations continue for the third day.
The statement also says some remains have been collected and are yet to be identified
Ali Harake, a local official and engineer at the scene says they are still looking for “around 15 bodies.” Meanwhile, the local municipality has brought in a crane in an attempt to retrieve people’s belongings from the damaged buildings.
Friday's strike killed a top Hezbollah official Ibrahim Akil among a dozen other members of the militant group. Civilians, including at least two children, were among those killed in the busy neighborhood.
Israeli firefighters work at a house that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo//Leo Correa)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces work at a house hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers carry the flag-draped casket of reservist Major Nael Fwarsy, one of two soldiers killed by a Lebanese drone attack on northern Israel, during his funeral in Maghar, Israel, Friday, Sept 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
An Israeli police officer examines the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli firefighters plane uses a fire retardant to extinguish a fire after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an open area near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli firefighters work at a house that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, near the city of Safed, northern Israel, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo//Leo Correa)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
People look at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early Sunday across a wider and deeper area of northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. The sides appeared to be spiraling toward all-out war following months of escalating tensions.
The rocket barrage overnight was in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that have killed dozens, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, and an unprecedented attack targeting the group’s communications devices. It set off air raid sirens across northern Israel, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters.
One rocket struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a community near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on fire. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said that a total of four people were wounded by shrapnel in the barrage.
Avi Vazana raced to a shelter with his wife and 9-month-old baby before he heard the boom of the rocket hitting in Kiryat Bialik. Then he went back outside to see if anyone was hurt.
“I ran without shoes, without a shirt, only with pants. I ran to this house when everything was still on fire to try to find if there are other people,” he said.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that three people were killed and another four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.
The barrage came after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Friday killed at least 45 people, including one of Hezbollah's top leaders as well as women and children. Hezbollah was already reeling from a sophisticated attack that caused thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies to explode just days earlier.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take whatever action was necessary to restore security in the north and allow people to return to their homes.
“No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities. We can’t accept it either," he said.
The Israeli military said that it carried out a wave of strikes across southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, hitting about 400 militant sites, including rocket launchers. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, said those strikes had thwarted an even larger attack.
“Hundreds of thousands of civilians have come under fire across a lot of northern Israel," he said. “Today we saw fire that was deeper into Israel than before.”
The military also said it had intercepted multiple aerial devices fired from the direction of Iraq, after Iran-backed militant groups there claimed to have launched a drone attack on Israel.
Israel's Health Ministry said that all hospitals in the north would begin moving operations to protected areas or shelters within the medical centers.
In a separate development, Israeli forces raided the West Bank bureau of Al-Jazeera, which it had banned earlier this year, accusing it of serving as a mouthpiece for militant groups, allegations denied by the pan-Arab broadcaster.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the outbreak of the war in Gaza nearly a year ago, when the militant group began firing rockets in solidarity with the Palestinians and its fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas. The low-level fighting has killed dozens of people in Israel, hundreds in Lebanon, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier.
Until recently, neither side was believed to be seeking an all-out war, and Hezbollah has so far stopped short of targeting Tel Aviv or major civilian infrastructure. But in recent weeks, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to Lebanon and vowed to bring back calm to the border so that its citizens can return to their homes. Hezbollah has said that it would only halt its attacks if there is a cease-fire in Gaza, which appears increasingly elusive.
The war in Gaza began with Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took around 250 others hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It doesn't say how many were fighters, but says women and children make up more than half of the dead.
Families of the hostages have raised fears that a war in the north would distract from their plight and further complicate the negotiations over their release.
The U.N. envoy for Lebanon called on all parties to pull back.
“With the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: there is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in an X post.
Israeli media reported that rockets fired from Lebanon early Sunday were intercepted in the areas of Haifa and Nazareth, which are further south than most of the rocket fire to date. Israel canceled school across the north, deepening the sense of crisis.
Hezbollah said that it had launched dozens of Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles — a new type of weapon the group hadn't 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.”
In July, the group released a video with what it said was footage it had filmed of the base with surveillance drones.
Hezbollah also said it had targeted the facilities of the Rafael defense firm, which is headquartered in Haifa, calling it retaliation for the wireless devices attack. It didn't provide evidence, and the Israeli military declined to comment on the statement.
Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people — including two children — and wounding around 3,000. The attacks were widely blamed on Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied responsibility.
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, known as the Radwan Force.
Lebanese authorities say at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike and that dozens more were wounded. It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the monthlong war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the attack broke up the group’s chain of command while taking out Akil, who he said was responsible for Israeli deaths.
Akil had been on the U.S. most wanted list for years, with a $7 million reward, over his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s.
Kareem Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Moshe Edri contributed to this report from Kiryat Bialik.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
People look at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Moreshet, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
A man looks at a house hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Moreshet, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Lebanese soldiers stand guard near the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man walks with a suitcase as Lebanese soldiers drive near the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Lebanese soldiers drive near the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A woman walks past a house hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Moreshet, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Lebanese soldiers stand guard near the site of Friday's Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburb, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
An Israeli police officer examines the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Municipality workers hang an Israeli flag over a damaged building that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Municipality workers hang an Israeli flag over a damaged building that was hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces work at a house hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
People look at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
Israeli security and rescue forces work at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gil Nechushtan)
A man looks at the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces examine the site hit by a rocket fired from Lebanon, in Kiryat Bialik, northern Israel, on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo//Ariel Schalit)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
