About 90 rockets were launched toward the Galilee and Haifa Bay area late Monday afternoon in two barrages, causing damage to property and vehicles, and several injuries. Most of the rockets were intercepted, according to the IDF.
Damage from roicket attack in Kiryat Ata
(Video: Gil Nehushtan)
Less than an hour after the attack, additional rocket alert sirens sounded in Safed and the surrounding areas in a third barrage of several rockets.
The first barrage included about 80 rockets were launched, and 10 rockets were launched in the second barrage with some identified as falling in open areas. The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen network, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported following the launches that two ballistic missiles were launched to the north.
A number of rockets fell in different areas in the north, and in Kiryat Ata there were at least eight scenes where rockets or parts of rockets and interceptors landed. One rocket hit near a bus station in Kiryat Ata, and cars caught fire as a result of falling shrapnel. According to Magen David Adom, at least four were injured by the barrages, including a 52-year-old man who was moderately wounded by shrapnel in his back. Three others are in a minor condition: a 75-year-old man, a 17-year-old boy with a hand injury from broken glass and a 55-year-old man who was injured on his way to the protected area. The three were taken to Rambam Hospital Haifa.
Damage was also reported in Kiryat Yam, according to police. Several minor injuries have been reported, as well as several cases of anxiety attacks.
The heavy barrage was recorded in a video from the village of Goren in the Western Galilee, near the border with Lebanon. In the recording, a man is heard saying in frustration: "They are shooting at my wife!"
The mayor of Kiryat Bialik, Eli Dukorski, said that in one of the scenes in the city, there was damage to the roof of a building, right above the protected room to which the residents of that building evacuated. According to him, there was no penetration in this impact, but damage was caused. There also was damage to the wall in the nearby building.
Damage to a bus station in Kiryat Ata
Residents reported hearing many interceptions in the skies over Haifa and the Haifa Bay area.
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah fired a barrage of some 50 rockets at the northern city of Karmiel and its surrounding areas on Monday. At least three people were hurt including a toddler and a woman in her 20s who suffered moderate injuries. others suffered shock.
The rocket fire came as reports in Lebanon indicated that the IDF issued a warning to residents of some 21 South Lebanon villages to leave ahead of a strike on Hezbollah targets.
The new foreign minister: 'We are making progress towards a settlement'
The massive rocket fire also comes a day after new Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that Israel had "defeated Hezbollah." In addition, his replacement at the Foreign Ministry, Gideon Sa'ar, said in a briefing to foreign reporters - hours before the unusual airstrikes - that "there is progress in the negotiations for a cease-fire with Lebanon." According to him, Israel is working on this together with the U.S., when the main challenge will be to enforce what is agreed upon.
Sa'ar also said that "Russia, Syria and the international community can contribute to stopping Hezbollah's arming in Lebanon, and guaranteeing its freedom without an Iranian branch. The most important thing in the future of the region is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."
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