Israel was indeed able to foil Hezbollah's intention to hit strategic targets in the north and center in a pre-emptive strike Sunday morning, and the Israel Defense Forces destroyed thousands of rocket launchers in southern Lebanon in a strike in which 100 fighter jets took part, but the Shiite terrorist organization still managed to launch hundreds of missiles and drones - and continued to cause damage to communities in northern Israel. At the scene of the attack in Acre, dozens of apartments and private homes were damaged by a direct hit - apparently from an Iron Dome interceptor - and a woman was slightly injured. In moshav Manot in the Western Galilee, a chicken coop was damaged, and there was damage on the road and in other areas.
At the scene in Acre, houses and apartments were damaged, and a nearby kindergarten was also damaged. Many windows in the area were smashed, and shrapnel also penetrated some houses.
In one apartment that was damaged, the residents said that there was no time to reach the protected area, despite the alarm. "I was in the bathroom, and my daughter was in bed. There was simply no time after we heard the siren, so we took her out of her room and stood at the adjacent wall - and then everything exploded," said Nurit, noting that her daughter is a child with special needs. "We didn't even have time to close the door. Everything flew at us," said her son, Osher.
One of the houses in the area was hit directly on the roof. Gershon Matah, who lives in the building, said while standing in the yard next to fallen shutters: "I live on the second floor. We heard a sired and tried to get to the shelter but we didn't make it, and before we got there, there was an explosion that sounded really loud. If we has been a minute or half a minute later then all the glass, all the windows, would have fallen on us because it was in the direction of the bedroom. If we had hurried more we would have been injured here on the ground floor."
According to him, it is currently not possible to enter the apartment, from which he operates his event photography business and development studio: "Everything is full of glass. I haven't checked which things were damaged yet, but I saw that all my computers fell on the floor and the refrigerator was also open and the washing machine.
Merav Abuhazira, an evacuee from Shlomi in northern Israel, who lives in one of the damaged houses in Acre, tearfully talked about her her current situation. She noted that prior to February the family had lived in Haifa, and then moved to an apartment in Acre, which had been going well until Sunday morning.
"I'm already desperate, frustrated, I don't see any prospect of going back home, here it's no longer a situation you can live in, a really frustrating situation. Someone needs to wake up."
She said that when the sirens sounded Sunday morning, the family members only managed to reach the stairs when a loud explosion was heard: "We felt it was inside the house. There was a strong smell of fire. We quickly ran to the shelter outside, because there is no fire extinguisher inside the house - and when we returned, this is what we saw. Crazy damage," she said.
Shoshi Naim, an assistant at the nearby kindergarten that was also damaged, came on Sunday morning to clean up the broken glass and the destruction. "It was a miracle that the children are at home, we still haven't returned to school from summer vacation. There are a lot of shards here, and the great miracle is that the children were home and so were we - and that's how we were saved, she said, adding that she is very disturbed by the intention to open the school year in a week. "It is very scary to open the school year like this, the way to get to the kindergarten is also dangerous. Although we have a shelter and we train the children all the time, they know that in 30 seconds we are all inside; But it's still scary and there are concerns."
The mayor of Acre, Amichai Ben-Shlush, spoke to Ynet from the scene of the attack and said: "This is an entire area that was extremely badly damaged, and this is the reality we live in. The residents are very, very anxious. There was a miracle here, because the residents adhered to the directives of the Home Front Command. You see a little girl and her brothers who ran to a place where there is no bomb shelter, to the most protected place there is. And I tell you - they were simply saved."
According to the mayor, it is still not possible to say exactly what hit the scene, and it is possible that it is both fragments of an interception and fragments of missiles. Shrapnel also hit a vehicle a few blocks from the main scene. The damaged vehicle belongs to Yaakov Mizrahi, who said that his vehicle was also damaged during the Second Lebanon War, 18 years ago. As a result of Hezbollah's barrages, several fires also broke out in the area, and at the Zebulon station, the Fire Authority said that they had sent teams to the various scenes.
In Hezbollah's attack, a retaliation for the assassination of the terrorist organization's senior operative Fuad Shukr at the end of last month, more than 320 rockets, as well as UAVs, were launched at the Galilee and Golan settlements, according to the terror group, which also fired into Acre, Ma'alot and the Safed area. Hezbollah claimed that the operation was "completed successfully," and that Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is expected to give a speech later on Sunday.
Israel launched a pre-emptive strike before 5 a.m. when, according to a report in the New York Times Hezbollah launchers were set to launch missiles at targets in Tel Aviv. In the pre-emptive strike, Hezbollah's intention to hit strategic facilities mainly in the northern region, but also in the center, was thwarted, including the possibility of firing into the center of the country where the Mossad and a unit 8200 is headquartered. A security source said that "Hezbollah planned to launch thousands of missiles and rockets at hundreds of military and strategic targets."
Alexandra Lukash participated in the preparation of the article