Hezbollah strikes Kiryat Shmona, Israeli bases deep in occupied lands ‘in defense of Lebanon’
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says its fighters shelled the illegal Kiryat Shmona settlement in the northern side of the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories with a barrage of rockets in retaliation for the unrelenting Israeli attacks on the Arab nation, which have killed hundreds of civilians.
Hezbollah also fired overnight volleys of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets at the Megiddo military airport west of Israel’s Afula, the Ramat David air base near Haifa, the Amos logistic base and the Zikhron explosives factory.
Hezbollah said it launched the missiles at the Israeli military bases, hours after 180 of its projectiles and an unmanned aerial vehicle crossed into Israeli airspace, prompting people in the city of Haifa to run for shelter.
The Lebanese resistance group also announced that its members struck the logistical warehouses of the 146th Division of the Israeli military at the Naftali base with a barrage of rockets.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said in a statement that more than 50 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into the northern flank of the occupied lands on Tuesday morning.
According to Israeli media outlets, rocket sirens were sounded in the Mount Carmel region, south of Haifa, amid the intense rocket attack from Lebanon.
The alerts were activated in Yokne’am, Daliyat al-Karmel, Isfiya, and several other towns in the area.
Galilee Medical Center, a hospital located in the coastal city of Nahariya, said nine individuals were brought to the facility on Tuesday morning after rocket fire in the Western Galilee area.
At least 558 people, including 50 children, have been killed and 1,835 others wounded in fierce Israeli bombardment on Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Fifty-four hospitals are now treating the patients. Four paramedics have also been killed and 16 others have been wounded in Israeli attacks.
The UN human rights office has called for the protection of civilians following Israel’s air attacks on Lebanon on Monday, describing the assaults as “the deadliest day of violence in years.”
“International humanitarian law is very clear. All parties to an armed conflict must at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.
“Constant care must be taken to spare the civilian population and civilian objects. The laws of war also oblige all parties to observe the principle of proportionality,” the statement added.
The UN human rights office also called for independent, thorough and transparent investigations into incidents in which civilians were killed or seriously wounded.
Nasser Yassin, the Lebanese minister coordinating the crisis response, told Reuters news agency that 89 temporary shelters have been set up in schools and other facilities as civilians fled “Israeli atrocities.”
