At least 12 killed by Israeli strikes south of Beirut
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has said that at least 12 people were killed, including several children, as a result of two Israeli air raids on towns south of Beirut.
More than 20 people were also injured in Sunday’s strikes, which hit the towns of Qmatiyeh and Kayfoun in the Mount Lebanon district.
The Ministry of Health did not provide a breakdown of the casualties, but we previously reported that at least four people were killed and 10 wounded following the strike in Kayfoun.
Witness describes aftermath of Haifa attack
An Israeli man said he heard a loud “boom” in his neighbourhood in Haifa before learning on the radio that there had been an attack in his area.
“I went straight away. First, in the beginning, we didn’t find any injuries, and then I saw [that building]”, the unidentified man said in a video testimony, pointing to a structure that appeared to have blown-out windows.
“I went inside and I found four people injured, between minor to moderate,” he said.
The attack marked the first time that the centre of Haifa has been hit since Israel’s war on Gaza began a year ago. The city is situated on Israel’s Mediterranean Coast, about 30km (19 miles) from the border with Lebanon.
Until now, rockets fired towards the port city from southern Lebanon have been largely intercepted by Israel’s air defence systems.
A person stands near debris inside a building after a projectile fell in Haifa, northern Israel October 7
Attack on Haifa comes on the eve of Hamas’s October 7 attacks
When it comes to the port city of Haifa, the reports are that at least 10 people have been wounded as a result of those five rockets that fell in the centre of the city that were not intercepted by Israeli air defence systems.
In one case, there was a man who fell out of the window of a building because of how much the ground shook from the impact of one of those rockets. Beyond that, a severe injury has also been reported in the northern city of Tiberius as a result of a rocket that had not been intercepted. That person was hit by shrapnel.
The attack on Haifa is significant, not just because it is the biggest city in northern Israel. It is also a major port city. It has a military presence and a population of about 300,000.
And the fact that this can happen in a city like Haifa, in the centre of the city, is something that is going to make Israelis feel particularly vulnerable, on the eve of the October 7 attacks and at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other political leaders continue to say that the wars that they are waging are making the country safer in the long term.
Hezbollah claims attacks on Israeli bases in Haifa, Tiberias
The Lebanese armed group said it launched a salvo of Fadi 1 missiles at the Carmel base, south of Haifa, and carried out a rocket attack on the Nimra base, west of Tiberias.
The attack on Haifa was its 18th attack on Israeli positions on Sunday, while the one on Tiberias marked its first assault today.
According to Israeli media, at least 11 people have been wounded in the Hezbollah attacks.
‘Massive explosions’ rock Beirut again
We are in central Beirut, about 7km [4 miles] away from those southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where there have been absolutely massive explosions.
The Israeli forces issued a statement saying that they hit a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah. We were looking at these images of these huge blasts that were lighting up the night sky and there seemed to be a number of secondary explosions and some sort of projectiles coming out of there.
But whether it was a weapons depot that caused these explosions, we are not sure yet.
We’ve seen a number of massive explosions in Beirut in the last couple of days. Lebanese media are reporting that one of them had come from a hospital oxygen tank factory and this is why it caused such a huge explosion in the night sky.
We are hearing those blasts from here. They are emanating all the way around Beirut. They are incredibly loud.
Dahieyh – an area of around 700,000 people – has almost completely emptied of residents. Those left? The medics cannot get in. There are air strikes day and night. The medics can’t get in to see if there are any wounded or fatalities at the moment.
