Israel presses on in Lebanon as Hezbollah rocket barrages rain down

Excerpt

It’s a snapshot of a war that is only getting bigger: Thirty minutes after sunrise on Friday, tens of thousands of Israelis were forced to run to bomb shelters in the bay of Haifa as Hezbollah militants across the border in Lebanon launched 20 rockets at northern Israel.

In Kiryat Yam, one of several cities north of Haifa, the work of Israel’s own missile defense shield could be seen over the city, neutralizing the enemy salvo. The intercepted rockets look like small puffs of white smoke in the air.

The attacks in the morning of October 4 were some of the 100 rockets launched at Israel during the day. The Israeli Defense Forces launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah on October 1 and has sent two divisions over the border to drive back the Iranian-backed militant group and end for good a months-long missile duel between the two sides.

Seth Frantzman is the author of The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.