Attack on central Israel injures 11 as Iran's leader promises a punishing response

JERUSALEM (AP) — An attack on a central Israeli town early Saturday injured 11 people as Iran's Supreme Leader vowed a punishing response to Israel's attack last week.

The predawn strike on Tira, which followed air raid sirens across central Israel, was one of several barrages fired from Lebanon early in the day. Many of the projectiles were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, while others landed in unpopulated areas.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said 11 people were hurt by shrapnel and glass shards in a direct strike on a building in Tira, a predominantly Israeli Arab town. Three were in moderate condition, while the others suffered milder injuries.

Footage showed significant damage to the roof and top floor of the three-story building and cars below.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group claimed responsibility for firing missiles toward the Israeli military’s Unit 8200 base in Glilot on the edge of Tel Aviv and for attacking central Israel's Palmachim Air Base with explosive drones, saying they “scored precise hits on targets."

Israel's military has not confirmed either base was targeted or hit.

Hezbollah said the Saturday dawn missile attack directed at Glilot was in retaliation for the “massacres” that are being committed by Israel. It was likely that the claim was linked to the strike on Tira, which is about 20 kilometers (11 miles) away from Glilot.

Tamar Abdel Hai, a resident of Tira, said that the attack was frightening. “I call upon all the leaders in the Arab world and the leaders in Israel and to everyone who can help to end this war. It’s enough,” he said.

Hezbollah also said that its fighters have fired salvos of rockets into northern Israeli towns including Dalton, Yesud HaMa’ala and Bar Yohai.

The early Saturday attacks may be only a precursor to a more severe strike against Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with a punishing response over attacks on Iran and its allies following Israel's Oct. 26 airstrikes that targeted Iran's military bases and other locations.

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front,” Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.

A further attack by Iran, which has already launched two direct attacks against Israel this year, could push the wider Middle East closer to a broader conflict. Israel is already battling the Iran-backed militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The fight against Hezbollah has weakened the group but has also taken a heavy toll on southern Lebanon and other parts of the country.

On Friday, Israel launched dozens of intense airstrikes across Lebanon’s northeastern farming villages, killing at least 52 people and wounding scores more, the Lebanese Health Ministry reported.

Since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted in 2023, more than 2,897 people have been killed and 13,150 wounded in Lebanon, according to a Health Ministry update early Friday. United Nations agencies estimate that Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment of Lebanon has displaced 1.4 million people.

Residents of Israel’s northern communities near Lebanon, roughly 60,000 people, have also been displaced for more than a year.

Israel has also stepped up its offensive against Hamas’ remaining fighters in Gaza, raising concerns about humanitarian conditions for civilians still there. The World Health Organization has said it plans to finally resume its polio vaccination campaign on Saturday, but only in Gaza City as towns further north remain inaccessible as Israel tightens its siege.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel and took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Health officials inside Hamas-run Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of the dead in the enclave are women and children.

Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Shlomo Mor in Tira, Israel, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A man surveys damage to his car after projectiles fired from Lebanon hit a home in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man surveys a damaged room after projectiles fired from Lebanon hit a home in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A view of a damaged home after projectiles fired from Lebanon in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli police men work at the site where projectiles fired from Lebanon hit a home in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli police men work at the site where projectiles fired from Lebanon hit a home in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man looks at damaged building after projectiles fired from Lebanon hit a home in Tira, central Israel, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Serbian rescuers stopped searching for survivors on Saturday after pulling out 14 bodies from underneath tons of concrete from a fallen canopy at the entrance of a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad.

Serbia’s government declared Saturday a day of mourning as officials promised a thorough investigation into Friday's collapse of the roof that fell on people sitting below it. The dead included a 6-year-old girl and a citizen of North Macedonia while three people were seriously injured, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.

Doctors said the injured ranged from 18 to 24 years old and remained in life-threatening condition on Saturday.

The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to corruption and sloppy renovations. Members of the opposition planned to protest in front of the station later on Saturday.

Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work. Goran Vesic, the government minister for construction and infrastructure, told the state RTS television the tragedy would not have happened had the canopy been renovated as well.

Dacic said some 20 people will be questioned on Saturday as part of the investigation, including Vesic.

Authorities deployed heavy machinery and some 80 rescuers who struggled for hours to remove large parts of concrete that crashed just before noon Friday. The rescue effort lasted until late Friday evening.

Residents of Novi Sad lit candles and held a vigil for the victims at the site. Many responded to a call to donate blood.

”This morning I drank my coffee in tears. It is hard this has happened in our city,” said Dragica Camber, a resident of Novi Sad,

Surveillance camera footage on Friday showed people moving in and out of the building and sitting on benches on a bright, sunny day before the concrete canopy suddenly collapsed. Windows shook on nearby buildings.

The railway station, including the canopy, was built in 1964. The renovation work was carried out by Chinese companies.

The renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.

Rescue workers search for victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People light candles for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People light candles for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People light candles for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People light candles for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

People light candles for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station in Novi Sad, Serbia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Workers inspect a train station after an outdoor roof collapsed o Friday, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

Police officers guard a train station after an outdoor roof collapsed on Friday, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

An Orthodox icon and candles left at the site for the victims after an outdoor roof collapsed at a train station on Friday, in Novi Sad, Serbia, Saturday, Nov. 2 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)