TIRA, Israel (Reuters) -Rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in central Israel on Saturday, Israeli emergency services said, after one of them hit a house, as prospects for a ceasefire dimmed.
Fighting has escalated dramatically in recent weeks between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah group, and hopes that a U.S. push for a ceasefire have faded in recent days.
“We went out and saw dust, children screaming, women screaming and everyone went to the house that was struck,” said Qasim Mohab, a resident of Tira, where the rocket hit. “We were able to evacuate and rescue those who were inside the house, and thank God we were blessed that there was no one killed.”
Israel’s ambulance service said that 11 people were hurt by shrapnel. Air raid sirens continued to sound in northern Israel as rocket fire from Lebanon continued, the military said.
On Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said 52 people were killed in Israeli strikes on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has UNESCO-listed Roman ruins.
Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave, and at least 2,897 people have been killed in Lebanon, its health ministry said in an update on Friday.
Seventy-one people in Israel and Israeli-occupied territories have been killed by Hezbollah’s fire, according to Israeli authorities.
(Reporting by Rami Amichay in Tira, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Jaidaa Taha in Cairo; Editing by Sandra Maler, Edmund Klamann and William Mallard)
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