Man killed, another seriously hurt in Hezbollah rocket attack on Nahariya

A man in his 30s was killed and a man in his 50s was seriously wounded in a Hezbollah rocket strike on the city of Nahariya on Thursday, rescue services said.

Hezbollah Rocket Strike in Nahariya

Police said both men were attempting to reach a bomb shelter when the rocket impacted a parking lot outside a residential building. Both victims sustained severe shrapnel injuries, and medics pronounced the younger man dead at the scene.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service reported that an additional 13 people were treated for shrapnel wounds or blast injuries, and 11 others received care for acute anxiety. All 25 individuals were transported to a hospital.

“I’d never experienced an impact so close. The explosion was the craziest I’ve ever heard in my life,” said Noa Avraham, a local mother of three, to Ynet news.

Avraham described the aftermath as filled with onlookers, glass shards, and distressed residents evacuating apartment buildings, expressing a “feeling of fear” and a sense that the north is “abandoned, invisible.”

Two people were lightly injured in the Western Galilee by falling fragments after a Hezbollah drone was intercepted, according to first responders.

The Israel Defense Forces reported that Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets at Israel on Thursday, along with dozens targeting troops in southern Lebanon. Several missiles were also fired at central Israel during the pre-dawn hours, which the IDF said were intercepted.

Increased IDF Presence in Southern Lebanon

In Lebanon, at least five people were killed by Israeli strikes, including two in a raid on a building in the Nabatieh area, according to state media. Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, chief of the IDF Northern Command, stated that the military has killed over 750 Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon since hostilities escalated.

The IDF has expanded its ground operation in southern Lebanon, with the 162nd Division conducting a raid in the western sector. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF intends to control a “security zone” in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River until the threat from Hezbollah is eliminated.

In addition to the 162nd Division, the 146th, 91st, 36th, and 210th divisions are deployed in southern Lebanon. The IDF is also preparing to deploy the 98th Division, an elite formation, as part of its efforts to establish a new security zone.

“We have expanded the ground operation…to widen the security zone,” said Milo during an assessment in southern Lebanon. “We are applying pressure on Hezbollah, pushing it northward and destroying its capabilities.”

Three IDF soldiers have been killed in southern Lebanon, while two Israeli civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rockets and one was mistakenly killed by Israeli artillery. Approximately 70% of the Lebanese population, or over 1.2 million civilians, have evacuated north of the Litani and Zahrani rivers.

The IDF announced the killing of Hassan Mohammad Bashir, a senior Hezbollah commander in its anti-tank missile unit, in an airstrike the previous night.

In Beirut, ministers from Hezbollah and Amal boycotted a cabinet meeting in protest over the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador.