Key Points
- Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa in Israel.
- Media said two rockets hit Haifa on Israel’s coast and five hit Tiberias, 65km away.
- Israel’s military said its fighter jets hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut.
Hezbollah rockets have hit Israel’s third-largest city of Haifa and 10 people were injured in Israel’s north on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread in the Middle East.
said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a salvo of missiles.
Media said two rockets hit Haifa on Israel’s coast and five hit Tiberias, 65km away.
Police said early on Monday that some buildings and properties were damaged, and there were reports of minor injuries.
Israel’s military said fighter jets hit targets belonging to Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut.
The overnight air strikes struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Beirut, the military said, adding secondary explosions were identified after the strikes, indicating the presence of weaponry.
Air strikes also hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area, including weapons storage facilities, infrastructure sites, a command centre and a launcher, the military said.
It blamed Hezbollah for deliberately embedding its command centres and weaponry beneath residential buildings in the heart of Beirut and endangering the civilian population.
On Monday, Israelis marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack that triggered a war that has sparked protests worldwide and risks igniting a far wider conflict in the Middle East.
Ceremonies and protests in Jerusalem and Israel’s south were set to begin at 6.29am (2pm AEDT), the hour when Hamas-led militants launched rockets into Israel at the start of the 7 October attack in 2023.
Israel has launched airstrikes on Lebanon, the country is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. Source: AAP / Bilal Hussein/AP
They killed some 1200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
in Gaza that laid waste the densely populated coastal enclave and killed almost 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.
Security forces were on high alert across Israel on Monday, anticipating possible Palestinian attacks planned for the anniversary of the worst bloodletting in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began.
For Israel, the surprise assault by the Palestinian Islamist group, also an ally of Iran, was one of the worst security failures for a country that prides itself on a strong, sophisticated military.
The Hamas attack on Israeli communities around Gaza and Israel’s relentless campaign in response have destabilised the Middle East while the scale of the killing and destruction have horrified people worldwide.
Israel has dealt major blows to Hamas and Hezbollah with assassinations of its leaders and commanders.
The focus of the war has increasingly shifted north to Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since the group launched a barrage of missiles in support of Hamas on 8 October.
What began as limited daily exchanges has escalated into bombardments of Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut and a ground offensive into border villages meant to stamp out its fighters there and allow tens of thousands of Israelis in the country’s north to return to their homes.
People have protested outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house, in Jerusalem, on the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Source: AAP / Mahmoud Illean/AP
Israel’s assault, which has killed well over 1000 people in the past two weeks, has triggered a mass flight from southern Lebanon, where more than one million people have been displaced.
Iran launched a missile attack on Israel last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza.
Israel vowed retaliation amid fears that tension would escalate into an all-out regional conflict that could also suck in the United States.
