Rockets have been fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. Israel has attacked Hezbollah positions with “dozens” of fighter planes. All developments in the news blog.
6.46 am: The mutual shelling between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon continues at night. Israel is bombing hundreds of targets. Sirens are blaring in northern Israel. The USA is extremely concerned. Read more about it here.
4.30 am: For the third time on Sunday night, a rocket alert was triggered in Israel. Early in the morning, the towns of Haifa and Nazareth were again the target of attacks from Lebanon. According to reports in the “Times of Israel”, classes in schools in Haifa, Nahariya and Acre have been cancelled for Sunday. The “Jerusalem Post” reports that a cowshed was hit in the Hezbollah attacks. Several animals were killed.
3.10 am: According to the Qatari television station Al-Jazeera, Israeli forces stormed its office in Ramallah in the West Bank early Sunday morning and ordered it to be closed for 45 days.
1.20 am: In view of the escalation in the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, the USA is calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon. Due to the unpredictable developments “and the recent explosions throughout Lebanon” including the capital Beirut, the US Embassy is “urgently advising its compatriots to leave Lebanon while commercial options are still available,” the US State Department announced late in the evening. Flights are still available, but with reduced capacity.
0.10 am: Shortly after midnight, the sirens sounded. A rocket alert had been triggered in northern Israel. The Israeli army published a map showing several alerts southeast of the port city of Haifa. The cities affected include Afula, Yokneam and Nazareth. There was another alert later.
Israeli media showed images of the Iron Dome defense system shooting down Hezbollah rockets. The IDF later reported that around ten rockets had been detected and most had been intercepted. The Lebanese Hezbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets at the Israeli air base Ramat David in the north of the country. This was in response to “repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon,” the terrorist organization wrote on Telegram. In anticipation of a possible major attack by Hezbollah, the IDF imposed new restrictions on Haifa and all parts of the country in the north on Saturday evening.
11.30pm: In view of the ongoing shelling from Lebanon, Israel’s army has continued its massive attacks on Hezbollah terrorist positions in the evening. Around 400 targets have been attacked since the afternoon, including operational rocket launch pads and “terrorist infrastructure” in several areas in southern Lebanon, the army announced late in the evening. According to Israeli military sources, dozens of missiles were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel during the course of the day. There were initially no reports of injuries on either side of the country’s border.
10:04 p.m.: Israel’s military says it has killed two terrorists who were allegedly holding six hostages who were recently murdered in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip. The two were killed by security forces a day later when they emerged from a tunnel in the Tal al-Sultan district of Rafah, spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
DNA samples and other evidence suggest that the two men were involved in the hostages’ captivity in the tunnel, Hagari explains. Investigations are now also underway to determine whether they were involved in the hostages’ murder.
