De la fumée et du feu s'échappent aux abords du village de Zaoutar, au Liban-Sud, le 21 septembre 2024 suite à une frappe israélienne. Photo Rabih Daher/AFP
Hezbollah announced at dawn on Sunday that it had fired dozens of “Fadi-1 and Fadi-2” rockets at the military base and airport of Ramat David in the Haifa region of northern Israel. The Israeli army said 115 rockets had been fired “toward civilian areas” in the north.
In its brief statement relayed by the party's channel Al-Manar, Hezbollah specified that these strikes are "a response to repeated Israeli aggressions against various Lebanese regions."
However, it didn't mention specifically the assassination of several of its elite military commanders on Friday afternoon in an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which caused dozens of injuries and several civilian deaths. Nor did Hezbollah 's statement mention the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to the party on Tuesday and Wednesday throughout Lebanon.
According to several Israeli and regional media outlets, some of the salvo of rockets fired from Lebanon were intercepted by the Israeli army in the Haifa region.
Following what appears to have been the first way of the attack, the Israeli army's Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X at 1:48 a.m.: "Regarding the alert sirens a few moments ago in the northern region, ten rockets were fired from Lebanon, most of which were intercepted. One of them fell in the region. An investigation is underway."
According to Al Jazeera, explosions were heard near the Israeli Ramat David airbase, located in the Haifa region. Israeli radio claims that 15 rockets were intercepted and shot down by the Israeli anti-aircraft defense.
According to the Israeli Maariv, at least one person was reported injured in these attacks in Lower Galilee. The Israel HaYom media outlet reports that most projectiles were intercepted but that debris from these rockets fell on open areas.
Using significantly different figures, the Saudi channel Al-Hadath reports that "Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets" at northern Israel.
Images circulating on social media, which L'Orient-Le Jour could not verify, show fires in some Israeli streets.
According to Axios journalist Barak Ravid, this Hezbollah attack is the longest-range one since the beginning of the conflict between the party and Israel on Oct. 8, following the Gaza war. In a post on X, he also says that the target of these attacks was the Ramat David base, located 30 km from the Lebanese border.
As Israeli planes and drones flew through Lebanese skies around 2 a.m. this morning, particularly over Beirut. Fighter jets struck the Litani region near Zaoutar and Deir al-Seryane in southern Lebanon.
On July 24, Hezbollah released an eight-minute video on the war media Telegram channel, showing footage of what it claims to be the "Ramat-David airbase." This was the third episode in a series of videos titled "al-Hodhod" (the hoopoe, named after Israel's national bird) featuring drone-filmed footage of strategic, civilian, and military sites identified as "targets" inside the State of Israel.
