Israel war: Hezbollah launches missiles at Israel as war rages

As Israel marked Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Hezbollah fired “320 projectiles” at the country as UNIFIL peacekeepers announced they wouldn’t leave Lebanon. Follow for updates.

The Israeli military said that Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired about 320 projectiles from Lebanon into Israel over Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day which ended early Sunday morning AEDT.

“Throughout the weekend of Yom Kippur, approximately 320 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation crossed from Lebanon into Israel,” the military said in a statement.

Hezbollah said it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base as Israeli troops battled militants in Lebanon and Gaza on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Cities around Israel were quiet with markets closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on the Day of Atonement.

People gather at the site of an Israeli air strike in the Basta area, in Beirut, on October 11, 2024. Picture: AFP

But with the country at war against Hezbollah and Hamas, troops remained engaged in combat on the northern and southern frontiers amid a firestorm of criticism over the wounding of four UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which has lost its leader and a long list of key commanders to Israeli strikes since the start of the war in Lebanon, on Saturday said it struck an army base with missiles to the south of the city of Haifa.

Hezbollah fighters were “targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of … missiles”, the group said in a statement.

Air raid sirens sounded on Saturday in northern Israel, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.

In the hours ahead of Yom Kippur, Israel faced severe diplomatic backlash over what it said was a “hit” on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.

A woman stands in the rubble of the Israeli air strike on an apartment block in Beirut, Lebanon. Picture: Getty Images.

Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UNIFIL mission said.

The military said Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to “an immediate threat” around 50 metres from the UNIFIL post.

As Israel faced a chorus of condemnation by UN chief Antonio Guterres, Western allies and others, the military pledged to carry out a “thorough review”.

A spokesman for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon said that Israel had requested it leave its positions in south Lebanon where Israel is clashing with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, but they had refused. They asked us to withdraw “from the positions along the blue line … or up to five kilometres from the blue line,” UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesman Andrea Tenenti told media, using the term for the demarcation line between both countries. “But there was a unanimous decision to stay,” he said.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force leader Esmail Qaani, pictured, has not been seen in public since Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Picture: Getty Images

A portrait of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah sits amids debris at Beirut's southern suburb Rouweiss on October 10. Picture: AFP

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Originally published as Israel war: Hezbollah launches missiles at Israel as war rages