Early Sunday (September 22, 2024), Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets into northern Israel, with some landing near Haifa, while Israel responded with hundreds of airstrikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader announced an “open-ended battle of reckoning,” as both sides edged closer to all-out war.
The overnight rocket barrage was a response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon that resulted in numerous casualties, including a veteran Hezbollah commander, along with a rare strike on the group’s communication systems. Air raid sirens across northern Israel sent hundreds of thousands scrambling for shelter.
One rocket hit near a residential building in Kiryat Bialik, close to Haifa, injuring at least three people and igniting fires in buildings and cars.
Three Lebanese killed
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that three persons were killed and another four wounded in Israeli strikes near the border, without saying whether they were civilians or combatants.
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 pained,” Kassem said at the funeral of top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil. He said a barrage of rockets fired by the group deep into Israel early on Sunday (September 22, 2024) was only the beginning, vowing to destroy Israel’s economy.
Israel’s response
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 it carried out 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.
