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Israel and Hezbollah escalated their gun battles on Sunday, as Israeli jets carried out some of the heaviest bombing raids in Lebanon since fighting began last year and the militant group fired rockets toward the city of Haifa.
The barrage capped a week of escalating cross-border tensions, raising concerns that hostilities between Israel and the Lebanese militant group could be on the brink of erupting into all-out war.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched about 150 projectiles early Sunday morning, with missiles aimed deeper into the Israel more than previous volleys. While most were intercepted, Kiryat Bialik and Tsur Shalom in the Haifa suburbs and other areas in the north of the country were hit.
Hezbollah Hezbollah said the shelling was in retaliation for “repeated” Israeli attacks, as well as an “initial” response to multiple explosions of its communications equipment earlier this week that killed 37 people and injured more than 3,000 across Lebanon. Hezbollah has blamed the device explosions on Israel, which has not directly confirmed or denied responsibility.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday: “In the past few days, we have dealt Hezbollah a series of blows that they could not have imagined… If Hezbollah does not understand this message, I assure you that they will.”
Netanyahu also reiterated that his country would take “all necessary actions to restore security” and allow people displaced by fighting to return home.
Israeli medical forces said they treated several people for shrapnel injuries in Sunday’s Hezbollah attack, although there were no immediate reports of casualties.
But in a sign that Israel is preparing for further escalation, authorities have restricted gatherings in the north of the country. They have also ordered schools to close and hospitals to operate from facilities protected against rocket fire.
As tensions rose across the region, Israel said it also shot down a drone launched from the east – an incident claimed by militants in Iraq who said they had also targeted Israel with cruise missiles – and carried out a raid in the Palestinian city of Ramallah to close the local Al Jazeera office for 45 days.
Israel has accused the media group of being a mouthpiece for militants. Al Jazeera has denied the allegations and the Foreign Press Association said it was “deeply concerned” about the move. “The restriction of foreign correspondents and the closure of news channels signals a shift away from democratic values,” the association’s board said.
Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, accused Hezbollah of “targeting civilians” in the latest air strikes, and the military said it would continue to attack to degrade the Lebanese militant group’s capabilities.
The Israeli military said earlier on Sunday that it had struck about 290 targets in Lebanon in the previous 24 hours, destroying thousands of rocket launchers and other infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah. The Lebanese Health Ministry said three people were killed in the airstrikes.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging artillery fire across the border since the Iran-backed militant group launched rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state on October 7.
But over the past week, hostilities have escalated dramatically. On Tuesday and Wednesday, attacks on Hezbollah pagers and other communications equipment sent shockwaves across Lebanon.
Then, on Friday, an Israeli attack on Beirut kill Ibrahim Aqil and other senior commanders in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, in what could be the heaviest blow Israel has dealt to the militant group since its founding in the 1980s.
The death toll from an airstrike that destroyed a residential building in the Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh has risen to 45, including at least 10 civilians, including three children, Lebanese authorities said on Sunday.
This week’s escalation comes after Israel announced that enter a “new phase” on the nearly year-long conflict with Hezbollah, which has so far been largely confined to the Israel-Lebanon border area.
Jeanine Hennis, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, warned that the exchanges had brought the region to the “brink of an impending disaster” and called on both sides to de-escalate tensions.
“It cannot be overstated: There is NO military solution that can make either side safer,” she wrote on X.
