Hezbollah steps up rocket fire on Haifa as Israel strikes Dahieh

Hezbollah fired another barrage of rockets into Israel on Tuesday, as Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem vowed to keep up pressure that has forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes near the Lebanese border.

Dozens of rockets fired by Hezbollah were aimed as far south as Haifa, and the Israeli government warned residents north of the coastal city to limit activities, prompting the closure of more schools. The Israeli military said Hezbollah launched more than 170 rockets across the border.

A 70-year-old woman was moderately wounded by shrapnel and Israeli media aired footage of what appeared to be minor damage to buildings near the coastal city of Haifa. Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said 12 people have been wounded in the shelling on Haifa and Krayot - a cluster of small cities and neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city of Haifa.

Hezbollah said it launched a "large rocket salvo" at Haifa and its northern suburbs, "in response to Israel's attacks on cities, villages and civilians."

Meanwhile, a violent Israeli airstrike targeted the Beirut southern suburb of Haret Hreik.

Later on Tuesday, the Israeli army raided Haret Hreik, Burj al-Barajneh, Rweiss, Laylaki, and al-Kafaat in south Beirut. It also bombed southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israel has inflicted a punishing wave of blows against Hezbollah in recent weeks and says it will keep fighting until tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon and over a million displaced since the fighting escalated in mid-September.

Since then, Hezbollah has extended its rocket fire into central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the country's commercial hub of Tel Aviv. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also launched missiles that reached central Israel.

Last, week Iran launched its own barrage of some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, in what it said was a response to the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, an Iranian general who was with him at the time and Ismail Haniyeh, the top leader of Hamas, who was killed in an explosion in Iran's capital in July.

Israel has vowed to respond to the missile attack, without saying when or how.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is in Washington this week to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The Biden administration says it is opposed to an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, which could escalate regional tensions even further.

- 36 killed in Lebanon in past 24 hours -

Lebanon’s crisis response unit announced Tuesday that 36 people were killed and 150 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,119 killed and 10,019 wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The report also recorded 137 airstrikes and incidents of shelling in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon, the southern suburbs of Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Some 990 centers — including educational complexes, vocational institutes, universities and other institutions — are sheltering 181,700 people people who have been displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the report said. Of those shelters, 781 have reached full capacity.

- UN chief calls Middle East 'a powder keg' -

The head of the United Nations warned that “the Middle East is a powder keg with many parties holding the match.”

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday that Lebanon is on the verge of “an all-out war” and Gaza is “in a death spiral.”

He said the death toll in Lebanon has already surpassed the number of people killed in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

The conflict in the Middle East “is getting worse by the hour,” Guterres said, and every airstrike, missile launch and rocket fired “pushes peace further out of reach and makes the suffering even worse for the millions of civilians caught in the middle.”

But the secretary-general said there is still time to stop the spreading violence.

He again called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon, the release of all hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the multitudes in desperate need.