BBCFirefighters battle fire at house hit by rocket in Kiryat Shmona
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has fired at least 150 rockets into northern Israel, killing two civilians and injuring several others.
Emergency workers said a man and a woman in their 40s were fatally injured by shrapnel in the border town of Kiryat Shmona. They were a couple walking their dog along a wooded path.
Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli forces in Kiryat Shmona, where most of the population has fled after a year of cross-border fighting.
They were the first Israeli civilians killed by Hezbollah since Israel launched an intense air campaign targeting Iranian-backed groups before invading southern Lebanon two weeks ago as the conflict escalated.
Rockets or debris that landed in Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday also caused several fires.
I could smell the fire even before I saw it. On one street, neighbors watched as three teams of firefighters battled smoke billowing from a home hit by a rocket.
Katie Klerstein watched in disbelief from across the street. The house next door belonged to her father.
When I asked her reaction, she said, “I saw red.” “It’s past fear, it’s just anger.”
Rockets have been flying into Kiryat Shmona almost every day for the past year, and many residents said they wanted the military to do everything possible to stop them.
There were several more rocket warnings and interceptions as we arrived and started filming. In this area close to the border, it only takes residents a few seconds to reach a shelter.
We witnessed a massive barrage of over 20 rockets followed by what appeared to be missiles all intercepted in the sky. The Israeli military said 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon in eight minutes.
Reuters
Most Kiryat Shmona residents have been evacuated after a year of cross-border attacks
Early Wednesday morning, we were in another town to the west, where the border cuts straight down the hill. Patches of burnt forest mark where artillery and rockets landed.
On the deserted streets below, gunshots from over the hill echoed through the empty houses.
Sherry Barkan, one of the few people who has stayed there, said there can now be as many as eight or nine rocket alarms a day.
“There’s a piece of a rocket in the garden,” she said. “Their purpose is to kill us, to kill us, to send Israel into the sea, and our purpose is to protect ourselves.”
She showed us the catering hall where they prepare meals for local soldiers.
While we were there, we could hear rockets being fired overhead from Lebanon toward Israeli towns further south.
Minutes later, rockets landed in the coastal city of Haifa, wounding five more people, including a teenage boy.
Reuters
Many Israelis said they wanted the military to do everything it could to stop the rocket attacks.
Israel is on the offensive after nearly a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the Gaza war, with thousands of Israeli border residents displaced by Hezbollah rockets, missiles and drone attacks. He said he wanted to ensure the safe return of everyone.
Hostilities have steadily escalated since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of the Palestinians on October 8, 2023, a day after a deadly attack on southern Israel by its ally Hamas.
The military says the purpose of the ground invasion, which began nine days ago, is to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure along the border, which poses an immediate threat to Israeli communities.
Heavy fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters was reported in several areas of southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
Hezbollah said its fighters pushed back Israeli forces advancing toward the western village of Rabneh, attacked other forces in the eastern village of Maroun al-Ras, and shelled troops near Maes al-Jabal near Kiryat Shmona. It was announced that.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said its soldiers and aircraft had destroyed more than 100 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon in the past day.
At least four people were killed and 10 injured in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Wardaniyeh, northeast of the coastal city of Sidon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said.
The state news agency reported that strikes hit hotels housing displaced families.
