Friday night, an Israeli source reported that a woman and her four-year-old grandson died of their wounds. The two were injured by a Katyusha rocket fired by Lebanese militia fighters that hit a house in the Meron settlement near Safad earlier in the day. At the same time, the Israeli army shelled the house and office of the Hezbollah leader in Beirut.
The child’s parents and six other Israelis were injured in the attack, the Israeli Ynentnews reported.
Meanwhile, in the Israeli city of Naharya, eight Israelis were injured and hospitalized after Hezbollah fighters fired Katyusha shells at the city.
At least 53 Israelis were injured on Friday; most of them from the northern Israeli towns of Naharia, Maalot, and Al Bqei’a.
According to Israeli sources, Hezbollah fighters fired at least 300 Katyusha rockets and 500 mortar shells into Israeli since the violence started three days ago.
The Israeli cities of Carmiel and Nahariya received direct Katyusha hits earlier Friday with two people mildly injured.
Also, Israeli sources added that Katyusha shells landed in Safad, Nahariya, Hatzor, Kiryat Shmona, Karmiel, Matat, Sasa, Pki’in and Beit Jan.
One of the rockets, according to the sources, directly hit a house in Safad, injuring 12 people. One person sustained a very severe head injury.
Several shells also hit the settlements of Shomra, Metula, Zarit, and Even Menachem.
The Israeli Magen David Adom paramedics said over 50 civilians have been hospitalized.
Meanwhile, leader of the Hezbollah party in Lebanon, Hasan Nasrallah, stated that if Israel wanted war, Hezbollah would give them war.
The statements of Nasrallah came after the Israeli army bombed his home in Beirut on Friday. The Israeli air force shelled both his apartment building and a main office of the Hezbollah party in southern Beirut. Nasrallah, his family and bodyguards were not harmed, Lebanese sources reported.
"You wanted an open war. You will get an open war," Nasrallah stated in a telephone message broadcast live on Hezbollah television, Al Manar, after the attack. Al Manar’s studios had been bombed by Israeli forces several days ago, but the station managed to reopen for broadcast from another location.
He also said that an Israeli Navy ship was set ablaze off the Beirut coast after the Lebanese fighters fired two rockets at it.
A Lebanese security source said the warship, which had bombed Lebanon earlier in the day, suffered considerable damage and Al Jazeera television reported four Israeli troops were missing at sea.
The Israeli online daily Haaretz reported that the ship was seriously damaged.
In a televised speech on Friday evening, Nasrallah said that Israel is waging war against Lebanon and the Lebanese people in revenge for “Israel’s defeat in 2000”, referring to the Israeli evacuation from southern Lebanon after having invaded and occupied Lebanon, and then pushed back by Hezbollah.
Nasrallah added that the Lebanese people, resistance, and army, have two choices; “to surrender to the American enemy and, unfortunately, Arab collaborators with the enemy, or to be steadfast and struggle”.
Nasrallah also addressed the Israelis, saying that they have “a stupid government, a government that is inexperienced”.
“If you want an open war, we are ready for it. We will attack Haifa and beyond, we will not accept to be killed, or to have our homes shelled without retaliation.
“The rules have changed, you have to be responsible for the actions of you government”, Nasrallah added, “If you hit Beirut, we will hit Haifa”.
More than 60 Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israeli military attacks in southern Lebanon, as far north as Beirut.
