The Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a heavy barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Saturday.
“We fired 62 rockets, this is the first response to the crime of assassinating the great leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut,” the terrorist organization said in a statement.
On Saturday, sirens sounded in cities in northern Israel, including Shtula, Abirim, Netu'a, Karmiel, Safed and others, following warnings of an enemy aircraft entering the country's airspace.
At least 40 rockets were fired in a salvo into northern Israel, targeting the Galilee and the Golan Heights. Some rockets reportedly hit Mount Meron while others were intercepted. After the volley, the IDF reported that it had hit a terrorist cell that had been involved in the shooting.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Friday that IDF forces “continue to fight throughout the Gaza Strip, using the most appropriate method of operation in each area of the Strip.”
Hagari also referred to the establishment of the IDF's investigative committee into the October 7 Hamas attack, to which the IDF's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said: “Our goal is to constantly improve, to learn lessons from the fighting and to minimize the losses” to our armed forces. Operational investigations are at the core of the IDF and part of the military’s genetic code.”
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said on Saturday that Gaza had become “uninhabitable” due to Israeli attacks since the war broke out on October 7. “A place of death and despair,” Griffiths said.
Scottish Prime Minister Hamza Yousaf called on the British government on Saturday to take action to stop Israel's “indiscriminate attacks” in the Gaza Strip. According to him, “The British government’s refusal to do this is shameful. “It is time for the UK to make it clear to Israel that its actions in Gaza have gone far beyond a legitimate response to the Hamas attack on October 7.”