Rocket fire from Lebanon set sirens blaring across northern Israel in the early hours of Monday, as Hezbollah entered the fray to assist its backer, Iran, with its relentless attacks against the Jewish state.

The terror group’s attack — which it said was retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening minutes of the joint Israeli-US assault on Iran on Saturday — was met with immediate fury from Israel, and waves of airstrikes across Lebanon.

Alarms were activated in the northern city of Haifa and surrounding areas shortly after 1 a.m. on Monday, and the Israel Defense Forces confirmed not long after that the source of the rocket fire that set off the alarms was not Iran, but Lebanon.

It said one rocket had been intercepted, while several others were allowed to fall in open areas, in accordance with the military’s policies. There were no reports of injuries or damage as a result of the attack.

Hebrew media placed the total number of rockets fired from Lebanon at six, although the IDF did not provide an exact total.

Hezbollah, in its statement claiming responsibility for the rocket fire, said it launched the attack as “revenge for the blood of the Supreme Leader of the Muslims, Ali Khamenei.”

The terror group claimed that it had targeted a missile defense site south of Haifa.

The attack came hours after Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed that his group would confront Israel and the US over their strikes on Iran, despite the Lebanese government’s plea for it to remain on the sidelines, as it had done during the previous 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025.

But the request fell on deaf ears as Hezbollah moved ahead with its attack, marking the first time that the Iranian proxy had fired at Israel since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon came into effect in November 2024.

The attack, Hezbollah suggested, should constitute a “warning” to Israel to “withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory” —  the five border posts Israel has held on to in Lebanon, citing security concerns, despite being required to withdraw under the 2024 ceasefire.

The IDF, in response to the rocket fire, confirmed that it had begun striking Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, saying that it would “not allow the organization to pose a threat to the State of Israel and harm the residents of the north.”

Alluding to the Lebanese government’s fear that Hezbollah would drag the country back into open hostilities, the IDF said the terror group was “destroying the state of Lebanon.”

“Responsibility for the escalation lies with it,” the military said.

More than a dozen explosions rocked Beirut, witnesses said, in the most intensive strikes on the southern suburbs since the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2024.

Lebanese security sources said airstrikes hit several areas of the southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh.

The IDF said that the strikes had targeted senior Hezbollah operatives within Beirut.

People fled on foot and by car, clogging the roads, after the series of strikes began around 2:40 a.m.

Beirut schools and shelters were reportedly being opened to accommodate a large exodus of people from Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon’s south and east.

The Lebanese health ministry could not immediately be reached for a casualty toll.

Israel also carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, after issuing a warning ordering residents of dozens of villages in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate.

As the airstrikes shook Beirut, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam sharply rebuked the perpetrators of the rocket fire, but avoided directly calling out Hezbollah by name.

“Regardless of who is behind it, the rocket fire from southern Lebanon is an irresponsible and suspicious act that endangers Lebanon’s security and safety and gives Israel pretexts to continue its attacks on it,” Salam said on X.

“We won’t let the country be dragged into new adventures, and we’ll take any necessary action to prosecute those responsible and protect the Lebanese,” he said.

It was the latest effort by Lebanon’s leadership to assert its authority over Hezbollah, which it has been trying to disarm ever since the start of its ceasefire with Israel.

On Saturday, upon the start of Israel and the US’s operations in Iran and the subsequent retaliatory fire from Tehran, Salam had warned that Lebanon refused to be dragged into war.

And after Hezbollah vowed regardless on Sunday to take action against Israel and the US, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun reiterated that “the decision of war and peace rests solely with the Lebanese state.”

Arabic media reported that Salam has called for an emergency meeting of the Lebanese government at 8 a.m. local time in light of the rocket attack.

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IDF Israel Defense Forces

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