Israeli strike kills 10 firefighters in Lebanon, authorities say

Three weeks of intense Israeli strikes and other attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 1,400 people, including 22 on Sunday, and displaced another 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah – a Shia Islamist political, military and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon – has remained defiant despite suffering a series of devastating blows in recent weeks, including the killing of its leader and most of its top military commanders.

On Monday, the group insisted it was “confident… in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression”.

It came hours after Hezbollah rockets struck the northern Israeli port city of Haifa and the town of Tiberias, causing damage and nine injuries.

Another 135 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Monday, according to the IDF. Police said a road was damaged in the Lower Galilee region between Haifa and Tiberias.

Israel’s government – which designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation – has pledged to make it safe for tens of thousands of displaced residents to return to their homes near the Lebanese border after a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the Gaza war.

The hostilities have escalated steadily since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Palestinians on 8 October 2023, the day after its ally Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Monday that the “counterattack on our enemies in Iran’s axis of evil is necessary for securing our future and ensuring our security”.