Tensions Escalate as Northern Israeli Cities Face Missile Attacks from Lebanon

Our reporter visited the northernmost part of Israel, the town of Qiryat Shemona, located just 7 kilometers from the Lebanese border. Due to frequent shelling, the town has been almost entirely evacuated. Drawing parallels with her experiences reporting from conflict zones in Ukraine, she highlights both similarities and differences between the situations. Terrorism manifests itself similarly, involving intimidation, abductions, torture, and the killing of civilians. Behind the scenes, autocracies like Russia and Iran emerge as sponsors of terrorism.

Reports of military attacks by the Hamas and Hezbollah groups on northern Israel from Lebanese territory are somewhat overshadowed by the deluge of reports and nightmarish news from the southern regions of Israel adjacent to the Gaza Strip. However, missiles are not only coming from the south, where they reach as far as Haifa, a major Israeli city 150 km from the Gaza Strip. They are also originating from the north, crossing the border with Lebanon, just under 40 kilometers away Haifa. This distance is comparable to that from the Russian border to the second-largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv, with a population of 1.5 million, which is almost daily shelled by Russian missiles.

Significant Missile Threat

Missiles are launched not only by Hezbollah from the north, where they feel at home in Lebanon, but also by Hamas.

On the night of November 5 to 6, terrorists fired around 30 rockets at Israel from Southern Lebanon. Rocket attacks targeted cities such as Haifa, Nahariya, and Akko. Rockets also fell on border towns, including Kiryat Shmona, where 12 rockets landed. "In the last hour, about 30 launches from Lebanon towards northern Israel have been recorded. The IDF responds with artillery fire to the launch site," said the Israel Defense Forces early on the morning of November 6.

While in the south, only Hamas carried out attacks from the Gaza Strip, in the north of Lebanon, both Hamas and Hezbollah were responsible. In particular, Hamas terrorists in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the attacks, stating that the organization "struck the occupied city of Nahariya and southern Haifa in northern occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel) with 16 rockets." Later on November 6, it became known that Hezbollah also fired across the border, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted their facilities. It has reached a point where Hezbollah terrorists are attacking civilian cars with anti-tank missiles in border areas.

Hezbollah is called the "most well-armed non-state organization in the world," largely due to the vast amount of long-range weapons at its disposal. However, while Hezbollah's rocket arsenal is enormous, only a small portion of it consists of Precision-Guided Munitions (PGM).

Photo: The Golan Heights are just a few kilometres from the town of Kiryat Shmona. Source: The Gaze, Jane Sivan

Estimates and Iranian Involvement

According to some estimates, the number of Hezbollah rockets ranges from 130,000 to 150,000, though a more conservative estimate puts it around 70,000, with the majority being short-range rockets. Of these, according to Israel's estimates, only a few dozen—possibly around 100—are genuinely precision-guided missiles. Many rockets and rocket components have come from Iran, which played a crucial role in developing Hezbollah's precision-guided project to enable the group to manufacture its own rockets and convert unguided rockets into precision-guided ones.

Hezbollah allegedly possesses medium-range missiles, such as the Iranian "Fateh-110" and the Syrian variant M-600 "Tishrin," whose accuracy is disputed. There is also the possibility of longer-range missiles, such as the "Scud," that would enable Hezbollah to attack the entire territory of Israel from positions in Northern Lebanon. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, claimed last year that "all [Israeli] ground and naval targets are within Hezbollah's reach."

Hezbollah may also have up to 2,000 drones, many of which are of its own production. In 2022, Nasrallah announced that the group is open to selling drones to foreign buyers. The group has drones of small (50–100 km), medium (200–400 km), and long-range (1,700–2,400 km). The payload of armed Hezbollah drones varies from light bombs to unguided rocket-propelled grenades, usually much lighter than the payload of missiles.

The recent concentrated attack from the north on November 5–6 was an attempt to probe Israeli anti-aircraft systems. Unfortunately, some missiles caused damage to small border towns in northern Israel.

Photo: Hezbollah's rockets – instruments of terror. This is what the streets of Kiryat Shmona look like now. Source: The Gaze, Jane Sivan

A Close-Up Look

As terrorists from Hamas carried out deadly attacks in the south of Israel, and hostages were taken, Hezbollah simultaneously initiated bombardments from the north, across the Lebanese border. One of the most extensive barrages was a strike of 12 rockets on the tiny town of Kiryat Shmona in the far north of Israel, where the borders of three countries – Israel, Lebanon, and Syria – converge. Before this, in October, the town had experienced occasional rocket strikes, but as the attacks intensified, the Israeli government decided to evacuate the town.

Consequently, Kiryat Shmona is practically deserted. Out of the 24,000 residents who lived there before the extensive rocket attacks, only about 2,000 remain. These are mostly very elderly individuals physically incapable of leaving.

Everything in the town is shut – shops, pharmacies, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, everything. It's somewhat reminiscent of the closures in the suburbs of Kyiv at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Similar evacuations occurred in small towns west and north of Kyiv – Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel. The only active force for the civilian population here is the Israeli military, providing the remaining residents with food, medication, and essential items.

People are, understandably, incredibly shocked and frightened. In contrast to Ukraine, there seem to be more panic attacks among the people. There are frequent cases of civilians getting injured while rushing to seek shelter as the time from the alert to rocket impact is counted in seconds.

Despite numerous rocket strikes, power and water supply systems are functioning adequately. Unlike attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure a year ago, there haven't been prolonged power outages in northern Israel. Although there are occasional disruptions immediately after rocket attacks.

Compared to Ukraine, here the damage is more localized. As of the morning of November 7, one person has died in Kiryat Shmona, and two café employees were injured near the location where a rocket hit. However, the sense of security is absent, and the limited consequences are a result of the evacuation and the readiness of local residents to quickly and correctly respond to air raid signals. The government, under these conditions, insists that everyone who might still be at risk there should evacuate.

Why? Because Hezbollah is a formidable army, more heavily armed and more substantial than Hamas. The situation is extremely tense, with everyone fearing an invasion from the north by Hezbollah forces. At the same time, there is hope that it won't come to that. Many Israelis are banking on the presence of US aircraft carriers off the coast of Israel. Especially since the US has unequivocally signaled that if Hezbollah directly engages in an invasion on Israel, they won't stand idly by.

The air is thick with tension, although externally it looks as if nothing extraordinary is happening. People are trying to go about their routine lives, attempting to grasp a sense of normalcy in absolutely abnormal conditions. Similar to Ukraine, in fact. What unmistakably indicates the heightened tension is the widespread activation of televisions and radios – in small shops, pharmacies, sewing workshops, restaurants, and cafes. The air resonates with tension even when the air raid sirens are silent.