HOW MUCH LONGER IS THE EXCHANGE OF STRIKES GOING TO GO ON BEFORE THE GROUND WAR GETS GOING?

IDF fighter jets engage in wave of attacks on Hezbollah after Israeli soldier killed

Several wounded soldiers were transferred to a hospital in Safed after rocket sirens sounded throughout the North.

 

By Alex Winston  

 

The Jerusalem Post                           

Feb 14, 2024 

 

Israeli officials evacuate a person who was injured by a Hezbollah rocket that landed in Safed, northern Israel February 14, 2024

 

IDF warplanes began an extensive wave of attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanese territory on Wednesday in response to an Israeli soldier who was killed, and multiple others wounded by rocket fire, the IDF said

Earlier, several soldiers were hospitalized from rocket fire in northern Israel on Wednesday morning as Hezbollah ramped up its attacks on Israeli cities.

An IDF base was hit in the barrage.

"A short while ago, numerous launches were identified crossing from Lebanon into the areas of Netu'a, Manara, and into an IDF base in northern Israel," the military said in a statement. "The IDF struck the sources of the fire."

Sirens were heard in Safed, Meron, and across the Upper Western Galilee as a barrage of rockets struck.

After initial reports of a direct hit in Safed, Magen David Adom (MDA) stated they were providing medical aid to seven people - one in serious condition, one in moderate condition, and six in light condition. The wounded were transferred to Ziv Medical Center in Safed. 

St.-Sgt. Omer Sarah Benjo was killed in the attack

The IDF later announced that the soldier in serious condition, 20-year-old Staff-Sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo, died of her wounds.

Staff sergeant Omer Sarah Benjo was killed by Hezbollah rocket fire in northern Israel. February 14, 2024. 

 

“As we have made clear time and time again, Israel is not interested in a war on two fronts. But if provoked, we will respond forcefully,” said government spokesperson Ilana Stein.

“The current reality, where tens of thousands of Israelis are displaced and cannot return to their homes, is unbearable. They must be able to return home and live in peace and security.”

Stein and Israel’s military said on Wednesday that the army had responded to cross-border rocket fire from Lebanon.

Israel’s military chief, Herzi Halevi, who had been meeting the heads of local municipalities in northern Israel on Wednesday, said that despite what he described as achievements against Hezbollah, this was “not the time to stop.”

Firefighters from the Galilee-Golan regional station worked for hours to put out a fire in a building in Safed that broke out as a result of a direct hit by rocket fire from Lebanon, the Fire and Rescue team said in a statement.

Mateh Asher Regional Council head Moshe Davidovitz stated, “The north this morning is under a flood of missiles. I suggest the government and its leader wake up. The head of the Radwan Force spits on us time and time again, and we think it’s raining. I repeat: Without security, there is no North.”

Davidovitz has previously stated that the northern residents feel abandoned by Israel’s government amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and the attacks by Hezbollah.

Two people were wounded in Kiryat Shmona on Tuesday after a direct rocket landed in the city.

Hezbollah says will only stop when 'Israeli aggression' in Gaza ends

The head of Hezbollah said on Tuesday that the cross-border shelling into Israel would end only when Israel’s “aggression” against the Gaza Strip stops. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to displace more residents from northern Israel, where tens of thousands have already been evacuated due to months of Hezbollah rocket fire, adding that if Israel’s military widened the war, his group would do the same.

A view of the site where a rocket landed after it was fired from Lebanon, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the entrance to a hospital in Safed, northern Israel February 14, 2024  

 

“On that day, when the shooting stops in Gaza, we will stop the shooting,” he said.

Security sources claim Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed four

A barrage of Israeli strikes on villages across southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed four people and wounded nearly a dozen, two Lebanese security sources said, as Israel intensified its bombardment in retaliation for rocket fire from Lebanon.

A woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of al-Sawana, the sources said. Lebanon's powerful armed group Hezbollah said a strike on a separate town killed one of its fighters.

Eleven people were wounded across the south and the level of damage was "vast," the sources said.

Meanwhile, IDF forces shelled the eastern areas of Rafah overnight and pounded several areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, residents said.

The health ministry in the Hamas-governed enclave said Israeli forces were continuing to isolate the two main hospitals in Khan Younis and that sniper fire at the city’s Nasser Hospital has killed and wounded many people in recent days.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed six people, health officials said.