Israel intercepts Hezbollah rockets, sends missiles to Beirut, as Middle East crisis escalates

Hezbollah rockets wounded at least 10 in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, as Israel hammered Beirut with overnight airstrikes on the eve of Oct. 7, one year after the Hamas attack that triggered an escalating crisis in the Middle East .

Hezbollah fired off a missile salvo towards a military base south of the city on Israel's western coast, followed by a second one that it said targeted an area north of the city.

The Israeli military said it intercepted five rockets fired from Lebanon and was reviewing the incident. It also downed some of the 15 projectiles it said were fired towards Tiberias, around 40 miles east of Haifa near the Golan Heights.

Meanwhile, Israel fired missiles at the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese capital where Hezbollah is headquartered. For more than two weeks, Israel has launched a wave of aerial attacks at the city, killing more than 1,500 people.

More: A year after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, 4 Americans are still being held hostage

The rockets across the Israel-Lebanon border came hours before the 1-year anniversary of Oct. 7 , when Hamas overran Gaza's border, killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 251 people hostage, marking the largest escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in decades. It was the biggest attack on Jews since the Holocaust and the deadliest day in Israel's history.

Israel launched a aerial and ground siege of Gaza to root out Hamas, a war that has killed nearly 42,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Airstrikes have pulverized the densely populated enclave , destroying infrastructure and pushing those remaining to the brink of starvation .

Amid the worsening situation in Beirut, the U.S. facilitated a flight carrying around 90 people from the city to Istanbul on Sunday, according to a spokesperson from the State Department.

The ongoing siege has provoked heightened attacks on Israel from Hamas' allies in the region, including Hezbollah. The Lebanese military group, which functions as a "state-within-a-state" in the country and maintains its own fighting force, has lobbed rockets over the border into northern Israel on a near-daily basis since the conflict began.

Israel began a wave of airstrikes targeting the group after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across the country on Sept. 17 and 18. Last week, Israeli soldiers invaded Lebanon for the first time since 2006, in what Israel called a limited operation on Hezbollah command posts. More than 1.2 million people in Lebanon have been displaced amid the fighting.

For almost a year, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has intensified firing of rockets into northern Israel. Tensions on that border have increased since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed 1,200 people. Israel responded by launching military strikes on Gaza that have killed about 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry.

U.S. officials are concerned that a ratcheting up of tensions could lead to a broader regional conflict in the Middle East and have been trying to negotiate a cease-fire.

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Israel holds memorials for anniversary of Oct. 7 attack

Israelis gathered for solemn memorials of the anniversary of the October attack on Monday. As sirens sounded across Tel Aviv after Hamas said it fired a missile salvo at the city, people at a memorial ceremony formed a long line along a busy street, holding hands.

A crowd of around 300 held a minute of silence outside the house of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they carried photos of the dozens of Israelis still held hostage.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog led a ceremony in Re'im, the site of the Nova Music Festival, where more than 360 people were killed and many were kidnapped as Hamas fighters swept into the desert festival during the attack.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel intercepts Hezbollah rockets, sends missiles to Beirut, as Middle East crisis escalates