Fires erupted across northern Israel after Lebanon-based Hezbollah unleased a barrage of rockets and incendiary drones. The Iran-backed terror group escalated cross-border attacks this weekend, coinciding with President Joe Biden’s efforts to force a ceasefire on Israel in a bid to halt the military operation against Hamas terrorist forces in Rafah.
“After Hezbollah launched a series of rocket barrages and explosive drones into northern Israel on Monday, massive fires erupted across the region, with firefighting teams struggling to contain the blazes,” the Israeli news website YNET reported midnight Monday night.
Several rescuers and volunteers were reported injured as they tried to stop the fires from spreading. “Major fires have reignited in the Ramim Ridge, north of Kiryat Shmona, prompting authorities to dispatch numerous firefighting teams. With homes in Kiryat Shmona and the neighboring community of Margaliot at risk, residents have been instructed to evacuate. Six people sustained minor injuries while battling the flames in Kiryat Shmona,” the news outlet added.
The Israeli military and rescue services were coordinating to stop the spread of blazes raging in the north, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Tuesday.
“The IDF is conducting a joint operation with fire and rescue forces to gain control over the locations of fire in northern Israel,” the military announced in a press release. “Over the past few hours, the IDF has been conducting a situational assessment with Israel Fire and Rescue Services to allocate additional means, forces, and firefighting capabilities in order to extinguish the fires in northern Israel.”
A large IDF contingent was on the ground to contain the fires. “At this stage, IDF reserve soldiers, engineer tools, mechanical equipment, fire trucks, and fire tanks were reinforced,” the press statement added. “An IDF Home Front Command’s fire battalion is currently operating at the scene and assisting fire and rescue forces.”
The Times of Israel reported the fires set off by Hezbollah rockets on Tuesday:
Residents and local authorities in northern Israel demanded Tuesday that the government take clear action to restore security, as bushfires sparked by Hezbollah rockets launched from Lebanon spread across large swaths of territory, with emergency services straining to control the blazes.A spokesperson for Kiryat Shmona, where fires lapped overnight at the outskirts of the evacuated border city, lamented that the government was failing to provide even the most basic level of security for residents.Opposition lawmakers panned the government for failing to control what has been an escalating border conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, while far-right ministers declared it was time to go to war in Lebanon, a course of action the government has sought to avoid as Israel is already fighting the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, with no clear end to that conflict in sight after eight months of war.Rocket fire that began on Sunday and continued on Monday caused sweeping wildfires that rapidly spread amid hot, dry conditions. Eleven people were treated for light smoke inhalation and there was some damage to property and agricultural areas.By Tuesday morning, the Fire and Rescue Services said they had most blazes under control. However, at around 9 a.m., warning sirens blared throughout the Galilee due to a possible drone and rocket attack from Lebanon. An Israeli interceptor missile apparently launched at a target was said to have failed and exploded near the city of Safed. Falling fragments from the missile caused a new fire in the area.“The politicians are talking so much they don’t get around to doing anything,” Kiryat Shmona municipal spokesperson Doron Shnaper told the Kan public broadcaster. “I prefer that there be less talk and more action, on security and economic matters, about the day after the war. There have been a lot of promises. In practice, nothing is happening.”
Since October 7 massacre, Hezbollah, directed by the Iranian regime, has resumed hostilities with Israel from its positions in southern Lebanon. Tens of thousands of civilians have been forces out of their homes amid cross-border rocket barrages and shelling into northern Israel. In the wake of relentless Hezbollah onslaught “[a]bout 60,000 people from northern Israel remain evacuated,” the BBC reported in May. Other estimates place the number of displaced Israelis even higher.
The Israeli armed forces continued to locate and destroy terrorist targets in Rafah and the rest of Gaza. “Over the past day, IAF [Israel Air Force] fighter jets and additional aircraft struck and dismantled approximately 65 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including military compounds, weapon storage facilities, launch sites, observation posts, terrorist cells, and additional military infrastructure,” the IDF revealed Tuesday.
The IDF special forces and uncovering weapons and explosives in areas of Rafah taken from the terrorists. “Furthermore, troops of the 162nd Division are continuing intelligence-based, targeted operations in the Rafah area,” the military press release said. “Over the past day, the troops located significant terror tunnel shafts and numerous weapons during scans in the area. During a targeted raid, troops of the Nahal Brigade located numerous weapons, including RPGs, ammunition, explosive barrels, AK-47 rifles, and additional explosive devices.”
The Israeli air force carried out a precision strike on an abandoned United Nations-run school, operating as a Hamas terror commander center in central Gaza. No civilians were hurt in the strike, the military confirmed.
“Overnight, following precise IDF and ISA [Israel Security Agency] intelligence, an IAF UAV precisely struck a Hamas compound embedded inside UNRWA’s “Abu Alhilu” school in Bureij, located in the central Gaza Strip, from which Hamas terrorists operated and planned numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF disclosed in a press release.
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