Israel on Saturday warned residents of south Lebanon “not to return” to their homes after Hezbollah said it fired missiles across the border on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
In cities around Israel, markets were closed and public transportation halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed.
But troops remained engaged in fighting in Hamas-run Gaza and the traditional Hezbollah stronghold of southern Lebanon amid criticism over the wounding of four UN peacekeepers as the country remains at war.
In a message addressed to south Lebanon, Israeli military spokesman Avichai Adrai wrote on Twitter: “For your safety, do not return to your homes until further notice… Do not go south; anyone who goes south will risk his life. “Can put it in.”
The war between Israel and Hezbollah has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon since September 23, and forced more than a million to flee their homes, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
On Saturday, Hezbollah said it fired missiles at an Israeli army base near the northern city of Haifa.
In a statement the group said its fighters were “targeting an explosives factory there with a barrage of missiles”.
Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel as the Israeli military said it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.
Israel began attacking Gaza soon after it suffered its worst attacks yet from Iran-backed Hamas militants on October 7 last year, and launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 30.
After the Yom Kippur holidays, attention is likely to turn again to Israel’s expected retaliation against Iran, which launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel on October 1.
‘Deliberately targeted’
On Friday, Israel faced severe diplomatic backlash over what it called a “hit” on a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon.
Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were injured in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said on Friday.
The Israeli military said its troops had responded to an “immediate threat” with fire about 50 meters (yards) from the UNIFIL base in Nakura.
But Irish army chief of staff Sean Clancy said it was “not a random act” while French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed UN peacekeepers were “deliberately targeted”.
Ireland and France are both major contributors to UNIFIL.
As Israel faced condemnation from U.N. chief Antonio Guterres, Western allies and others, its military promised a “thorough review.”
UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon have been on the front lines of the Israel-Hezbollah war, which has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
According to UNIFIL, four peacekeepers have been wounded, including two Indonesians, when a tank fired on their watchtower on Thursday.
Diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to the fighting have so far failed, but Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said his government would ask the UN Security Council to issue a new resolution calling for a “complete and immediate ceasefire”.
The Lebanese army said Friday that two soldiers were killed in an Israeli attack on one of its bases in southern Lebanon.
In a show of support for Iran’s ally Hezbollah, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday visited the site of a deadly Israeli attack earlier this week that killed Hezbollah security chief Wafik Safa, according to a source close to Hezbollah. Was targeted.
Neither Hezbollah nor Israel have confirmed whether Safa was actually the target of the attack, but according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, 22 people were killed in the attack.
The trip to Lebanon, a sign of defiance, comes after Israel vowed to respond to Iran’s second direct attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “lethal, precise and stunning.”
The United States is pushing for a “proportionate” response that would not push the region into a wider war, with President Joe Biden urging Israel to avoid attacking Iranian nuclear facilities or energy infrastructure.
deaths in gaza
Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing on Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas after the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in 1,206 deaths, mostly Israelis, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. There were civilians, including hostages. Died in captivity.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has wreaked havoc and killed 42,175 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory.
The Israeli crackdown in Gaza continues, with troops besieging the area around Jabaliya in the north, causing further suffering for thousands of people trapped there, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
“The bombardment has not stopped. Every minute there are shells, rockets and fire hitting buildings and everything,” Ariz Nasr, 35, told AFP after fleeing Gaza City from Jabaliya on Thursday.
On Friday, Gaza’s civil protection agency reported that 30 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the area, including on schools being used as shelters by displaced people.
An AFP journalist in Gaza reported heavy artillery shelling, explosions and gunfire in the Zitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in the south on Saturday.
Adrai, the Israeli military spokesman, posted another evacuation warning for an area near Jabaliya on Saturday.
“The specified area, including the shelters within it, is considered a dangerous war zone,” Adrai said on X, ordering residents to move to the humanitarian zone in the southern part of the strip.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
