Hezbollah hits Israel on the day of the Gaza war; Fears grow over Middle East instability By Reuters

By Steven Scheer and Yomna Ehab

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – Hezbollah rockets hit Israel's third-largest city Haifa, police said early on Monday, and Israeli media reported 10 wounded in the north of the country on the first day of the Gaza war, which has spread across the Middle East. .

Iran-backed Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group fighting Israel in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with a barrage of “Fadi 1” missiles.

Media said two rockets hit Haifa on Israel's Mediterranean coast and five hit Tiberias, 65 kilometers away.

The police said that some buildings and structures were destroyed, there were reports of minor injuries, and some people were taken to a nearby hospital.

Israel's military said warplanes hit Hezbollah's Intelligence Headquarters in Beirut, including intelligence gathering facilities, control centers and additional infrastructure.

A few hours ago, airstrikes hit Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the Beirut area, the military said, adding that a second explosion was detected after the strikes, indicating the presence of weapons.

Airstrikes also hit Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Beqaa area, including weapons depots, infrastructure sites, a command center and a launcher, the military said.

He accused Hezbollah of deliberately embedding its command centers and weapons under residential buildings in central Beirut and putting civilians at risk.

On Monday, Israelis marked the first anniversary of the Hamas attack that sparked a war that sparked global protests and threatened to escalate the conflict in the Middle East.

Events and demonstrations in Jerusalem and southern Israel were expected to begin around 06:29 am, the same hour when Hamas-led militants fired rockets into Israel at the start of the Oct. 7 attack.

They killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 people to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

Hamas has sparked an Israeli offensive in Gaza that has devastated the coastal enclave and killed nearly 42,000 people, Palestinian health authorities said.

Security forces were on high alert across Israel on Monday, the military and police said, in anticipation of a possible Palestinian attack planned for the Oct. 7 celebration.

In Israel, the surprise attack by the Palestinian Islamist group, which is also allied with Iran, was one of the worst security failures in a country that prides itself on a strong and sophisticated military.

Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities around Gaza and Israel's relentless response campaign have shaken the Middle East and the level of killing and destruction has shocked people around the world.

Israel has dealt major blows to Hamas and Hezbollah with a series of assassinations of their leaders and commanders, – part of Iran's “Axis of Resistance” which includes the Houthis in Yemen and armed groups in Iraq to fight Israel and US interests in the Middle East.

Iran's Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani, who traveled to Lebanon after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed last month in an Israeli attack, has not been heard from since the strikes in Beirut late last week, two senior Iranian security officials said. Reuters.

One of the officials said that Qaani was in an area south of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh, when there was a strike that reportedly targeted Hezbollah's top official, Hashem Safieddine, but this official said that he did not meet Safieddine.

The Quds Force, the foreign arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, oversees cooperation with Tehran-allied forces across the Middle East, such as Hezbollah.

The Commander of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed with Nasrallah in his bedroom when he was hit by Israeli bombs on September 27.

The fighting is concentrated in northern Lebanon where Israeli forces have been opening fire on Hezbollah since the Iran-backed group launched a barrage of missiles in support of Hamas on October 8.

What began as a moderate daily exchange has escalated into bombings of Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut and ground attacks on border towns aimed at eliminating its fighters there and allowing tens of thousands of Israelis to flee their homes in the north of the country to return.

The Israeli offensive, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the past two weeks, has prompted a mass flight from southern Lebanon, where more than 1 million people have been displaced.

This escalation has raised fears that the United States and Iran will be involved in an all-out war in the oil-producing Middle East.

Iran launched missile attacks on Israel last week in response to its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, where Hezbollah and Hamas are allied with Tehran in the so-called Axis of Resistance.

Israel, which says its aim is to safely return tens of thousands of civilians to homes in the north, has vowed to retaliate amid fears that tensions could escalate into a regional war that could engulf the United States.