Two people died after being wounded by shrapnel from a rocket barrage launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon into northern Israel on Friday, a hospital and the army said.
“A 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were pronounced dead after they were brought in critical condition,” the hospital’s spokesman said in a statement.
The army earlier said about 30 projectiles from Lebanon had been intercepted near the Arab town of Majd al-Krum in the Galilee region, and that debris from them was identified falling.
The army said in a separate statement that as of 4:00 pm (1300 GMT), about 45 projectiles fired by Hezbollah crossed into Israel from Lebanon.
Hezbollah said its fighters on Friday afternoon targeted Karmiel with “a large rocket salvo”, referring to the city near Majd al-Krum.
“We heard a loud noise from a nearby explosion and began receiving reports of injuries at the shopping centre,” said Muhammad Hibi, a paramedic from Magen David Adom, Israel’s first responders.
MDA’s spokesman Zaki Heller said in a statement that seven other people were wounded.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the attack.
“Hezbollah’s attack today on Majd al-Krum, a Muslim town near Karmiel, again proves that Iran’s proxies kill Jews, Christians, Muslim Arabs, Bedouins, Druze, and anyone different from them,” he wrote on X.
Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of Hamas after the Palestinian militant group launched its unprecedented attack on Israel the previous day.
Ninety-two people have been killed on the Israeli side from Hezbollah rocket fire, including 12 in the Israeli-annexed region of the Golan Heights.
At least 1,580 people have been killed in Lebanon since all-out war erupted on September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures.
AFP