Hezbollah Hits Back With More Than 100 Rockets Across A Wider And Deeper Area Of Israel

NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) — Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early Sunday across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader declared an “open-ended battle of reckoning” was underway as both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war.

The overnight rocket barrage 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. Air raid sirens across northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands of people scrambling into shelters.

One rocket struck near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, a city near Haifa, wounding at least three people and setting buildings and cars on fire. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said 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 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.

Hezbollah responds to unprecedented blows, ratchets up rhetoric

Hezbollah’s deputy leader Naim Kassem said his group is now in an ″open-ended battle of reckoning” with Israel, threatening more displacement for people in Israel’s north.

“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained — you will also be