Two civilians killed by Hezbollah rocket fire in northern Israel

Two civilians have been killed and several others wounded after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired at least 150 rockets into northern Israel.

Paramedics said a man and a woman in their 40s were fatally wounded by shrapnel in the border town of Kiryat Shmona. They were a couple who had been out walking their dog along a wooded street.

Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli forces in Kiryat Shmona, which most residents have evacuated after a year of cross-border fighting.

These were the first Israeli civilians killed by Hezbollah since the conflict escalated two weeks ago, when Israel launched an intense air campaign targeting the Iran-backed group before invading southern Lebanon.

The rocket or fragments that hit Kiryat Shmona on Wednesday also sparked several fires.

We could smell the fires burning before we saw them. In one street, neighbours watched as three teams of firefighters tackled plumes of smoke from a house where a rocket had landed.

Katy Krelshtein watched in disbelief from the other side of the road – the house next door belonged to her father.

“I saw red,” she replied, when I asked for her reaction. “It’s gone beyond fear now – it’s just anger.”

Rockets have been a daily reality for a year now in Kiryat Shmona, and many people there said they wanted their military to do whatever it takes to make them stop.

As we arrived and began filming, there were several more rocket alerts and interceptions. This close to the border, residents have just seconds to reach a shelter.

We watched as one large barrage of more than 20 rockets, followed by what looked like a missile, were all intercepted in the sky overhead – part of what the Israeli military said were 90 projectiles launched from Lebanon in a single eight-minute window.

Earlier on Wednesday, we were in another town to the west, where the border cuts straight down the hill overlooking it. Burned patches of forest mark where artillery and rockets have landed.

In the deserted streets below, the sound of gunfire from across the hill echoed around empty houses.

Shelley Barkan, one of very few who have stayed there, said there were sometimes eight or nine rocket alerts each day now.

“I’ve got pieces of rockets in my garden,” she said. “Their aim is to murder us, to kill us, to send Israel to the sea, and our aim is to defend ourselves.”

She showed us the catering hall where she helps prepare food for the local soldiers.

While we were there, we heard a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon over our heads towards Israeli towns further south.

Minutes later, rockets landed in the coastal city of Haifa, wounding another five people, including a teenage boy.

Israel has gone on the offensive after almost a year of cross-border fighting sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wants to ensure the safe return of tens of thousands of residents of Israeli border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

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.

The military says the aim of its ground invasion, which began nine days ago, is to destroy Hezbollah infrastructure along the border that it says poses an imminent threat to Israeli communities.

There were reports of intense battles between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters in several southern Lebanese areas on Wednesday.

Hezbollah said its fighters had pushed back Israeli troops advancing towards the western village of Labbouneh, attacked others inside the eastern village of Maroun al-Ras, and shelled troops near Mays al-Jabal, which is near Kiryat Shmona.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops and aircraft had destroyed more than 100 Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon over the past day.

The Lebanese health ministry said at least four people had been killed and 10 injured in an Israeli air strike on the village of Wardaniyeh, to the north-east of the coastal city of Sidon.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the strike hit a hotel housing displaced families.