On October 19, Hezbollah announced that it had launched attacks against Israeli positions in the Tel Aviv area, including an intelligence base, and fired rockets at the naval base in Haifa, located in northern Israel. This escalation follows reports from Lebanese state media of heavy bombardments by Israeli forces on areas south of Beirut.
Authorities reported that these Israeli strikes targeted locations near Lebanon’s largest public hospital, resulting in the deaths of four people, including one child.
In a statement, Hezbollah claimed its fighters launched a barrage of rockets at the Glilot Base, associated with the 8200 military intelligence unit, and indicated that a similar attack had occurred on the same base the night before.
Hezbollah also confirmed they targeted another Israeli military site in the Tel Aviv suburbs and fired a series of rockets at the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa, a coastal city in northern Israel.
In response, the Israeli military reported that air raid sirens were activated in central Israel and approximately five rockets launched from Lebanon were detected, with most intercepted. Alerts were also sounded in the northern Galilee and Golan Heights regions, where around 15 additional rockets were identified. Some were intercepted while others landed in open areas. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far.
The Israeli military stated that it would continue its bombardment of Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, attacking around 300 targets in the past 24 hours. Some of these targets were connected to financial companies linked to Hezbollah.
A Lebanese security official informed AFP that the locations targeted by Israeli forces were near the main runway of Beirut’s sole international airport, forcing the national airline to reroute flights last night.