Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strikes would continue until it was safe for people evacuated from the north to return—setting the stage for a larger conflict as Hezbollah has vowed to fight on until a cease-fire is reached in the parallel Gaza war.
“In recent days we have inflicted a series of blows on Hezbollah that it never imagined,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement. “If Hezbollah has not understood the message, I promise you, it will understand the message.”
The conflict—which sharply escalated over the past week—has raged since Hezbollah opened a second front against Israel, saying it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians facing an Israeli offensive further south in Gaza.
The Israeli military said it struck around 290 targets on Sept. 21, including thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels, and that it would continue to hit more.
On Sept. 22, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hezbollah had launched approximately 150 rockets, cruise missiles, and UAVs toward Israeli territory overnight.
“With high interception rates, the multi-layered aerial defense effort prevented significant damage to the home front,” the IDF said.
The majority of the attacks were aimed at northern Israel, triggering sirens in the western and lower Galilee regions, and hitting open fields, as well as homes and cars.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were ongoing retribution for Sept. 17 and 18, when more than 37 Hezbollah members were killed and thousands more injured by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon. Victims included the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon and the sons of some prominent Hezbollah leaders, as well as two children, including a 16-year-old Hezbollah operative from south Lebanon.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks. Israel hasn’t claimed responsibility, but security experts say the attacks were likely mounted either by Israel’s Mossad spy agency or by Unit 8200, the IDF’s secretive high-tech unit.
The Iran-backed terrorist group said in a statement on Sept. 22 that it used Fadi-1/2 long-range missiles and rockets to target the Ramat David Airbase near the town of Beit She'arim and the Rafael defense facility near Haifa.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated four people for minor injuries overnight and early on the morning of Sept. 22, and a number of people for anxiety amid the rocket attacks and resulting siren warnings that were triggered across western and lower Galilee.
Around 1:20 a.m., a 60-year-old man was treated for a light shrapnel scratch from an intercepted missile near the Ramat David Airbase at Beit She'arim. The Israeli Air Force houses F-16C/D squadrons and drones at the base.
A 17-year-old lost control of his vehicle and died in a crash near the airbase as the rockets and sirens sounded overhead. His four passengers were also injured. And 25 cows were killed when a Hezbollah rocket landed on a dairy farm in the Jezreel Valley, about nine miles south of the airbase.
Around 6:30 a.m., the MDA reported a rocket hitting houses in the western Galilee city of Kiryat Bialik, three miles south of the Rafael defense facility near Haifa. It said it treated two men in their 70s and a 16-year-old girl for minor rocket shrapnel injuries, and several people for acute anxiety or injuries from falls while running to shelters.
About 18 miles west of the Rafael facility in Moreshet, there were also reports of significant damage to houses but no injuries.
Schools in Northern Israel Ordered to Shut
Schools across Israel’s north have been ordered to remain closed as of Sept. 22 in light of the crossfire in the region.The Israeli military’s civil defense agency, the Home Front Command, announced that schools and other educational institutions and activities would not be permitted to operate in the north until at least 6 p.m. local time on Sept. 23.
The announcement tightened earlier restrictions on public activities imposed in the north after around 20 attacks from Lebanon that started on Sept. 20 were reported in the region.
Schools from the Golan Heights, Galilee, the Haifa Bay area, and the northern valleys will be shut as far south as Beit Shean, which is about 40 miles from the Lebanese border.
Outdoor gatherings are also restricted to 10 people, down from 30, while indoor activities are capped at 100 people, down from 300. And only workplaces with adequate bomb shelters are allowed to open.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Education also announced it was closing places of learning across the country for the week.
“Even in Dahieh in Beirut—we will continue to pursue our enemy in order to protect our citizens,” he said. “The sequence of actions in the new phase will continue until our goal is achieved: the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”
Since Oct. 8, 2023, when it vowed to support fellow Iran proxy Hamas’s fight against Israel, Hezbollah has launched attacks into northern Israeli communities and military posts along the border almost every day.
In the escalating conflict, Israel has reported 22 IDF members and Hezbollah has reported 502 members killed in the conflict, according to local media. One Lebanese soldier and 79 members of other pro-Iran terror groups have also been killed.
Iran-Backed Forces in Iraq Claim Missile, Drone Attacks
The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq (ISI) claimed responsibility on Sept. 22 for launching cruise missiles and drones toward Israel overnight, in coordination with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.In a statement, the ISI said that it had launched a drone attack targeting an Israeli military base in the Jordan Valley.
The IDF said on Sept. 22 that a drone entering Israeli airspace from the east was shot down by the Israeli Air Force over the southern Golan Heights. Sirens in the area were triggered to warn of potential falling shrapnel but no injuries or damage were reported.
Earlier, the IDF said the air force had successfully intercepted suspected cruise missiles launched from Iraq toward the southern Golan Heights.
The ISI has made multiple attempts at drone and missile strikes on Israel since January and has threatened to intervene in the conflict.
On Sept. 20, ISI-aligned group Kataib Sarkhat al Quds, formerly known as Ashab al Kahf, said it was prepared to send “hundreds or even thousands” of militants to Lebanon to support Hezbollah in fighting Israel.
