BERLIN (AP) — A state election is taking place in Brandenburg on Sunday, three weeks after a far-right party made gains in two other states in eastern Germany.
Around 2.1 million people are registered to vote for a new state parliament in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds the German capital, Berlin.
Sunday's election is being watched closely for signs about the country's political direction.
The latest polls showed that the far-right Alternative for Germany is neck-and-neck with the Social Democrats, the party that has governed Brandenburg continuously since German reunification in 1990.
The Social Democrats, the largest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition government, are hoping to maintain control of their stronghold in the face of rising support for parties on the extreme right and left.
If the Social Democrats lose in Brandenburg, it would be seen as a bad omen for Scholz a year before a federal election that is due to be held on Sept. 28, 2025. Scholz lives in Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, and German political observers believe the chancellor's political future will be shaped by the results of Sunday's vote in Brandenburg.
The fate of the Brandenburg governor, Dietmar Woidke, is also hanging in the balance. He made it his goal for his Social Democrats to beat Alternative for Germany, or AfD, and vowed to resign should the AfD win.
“If I lose against the AfD, I am gone,” Woidke said.
The Alternative for Germany won the most votes in the state of Thuringia and also did well in an election in Saxony on Sept. 1. A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made a strong impact, while the parties in Scholz’s unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results.
That was the first time the far right won an election in Germany since World War II, and it dealt a heavy blow to Scholz's centrist coalition. It also generated concerns in Germany and abroad about the growing support for the extreme right in the largest European Union country, and a member of NATO.
The far-right party has gained support amid a growing backlash to large-scale migration to Germany over the past decade and several recent extremist attacks. Germany's economy, once a powerhouse, has been weakening, adding to a general feeling of malaise.
Sunday's vote follows a heated election campaign centered on the issues of migration, internal security and peace. Both the far right and the new leftist movement, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW, want to end weapons deliveries to Kyiv as Ukraine tried to defend itself against Russia's full-scale invasion.
Even if the Alternative for Germany wins in Brandenburg, it is unlikely to govern because other parties have refused to work with it.
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrives to vote in the state election in Brandenburg at a polling station in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Michael Bahlo/dpa via AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock votes in the state election in Brandenburg at a polling station in Potsdam, Germany, Sunday Sept. 22, 2024. (Michael Bahlo/dpa via AP)
Hans-Christoph Berndt, a candidate for the AfD in the Brandenburg state elections, and his wife cast their ballots for the state election on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 in Potsdam, Germany. (Frank Hammerschmidt/dpa via AP)
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 set off air raid sirens across northern Israel, sending thousands of people scrambling into shelters. The Israeli military said that rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas," pointing to a possible escalation after previous barrages had mainly been aimed at military targets.
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 one person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli strike near the border.
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 personal devices to explode just days earlier.
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 Isreal. They spent the night and now the morning in bomb shelters," 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.
Neither side is believed to be seeking a 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 as long-running talks led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly bogged down.
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. Gaza's Health Ministry says that more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed. 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.
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 on the building and that another 68 people were wounded, 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 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
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)
