Rocket fire resumed in northern Israel on Tuesday after relative silence for three days. Iron Dome missile defense systems intercepted three Hezbollah drones in the Western Galilee at noon, hours after the terrorist organization claimed responsibility for an attack on an Israeli target for the first time since Saturday.
Footage taken by a Hezbollah drone over Haifa
At the same time, Hezbollah published over nine minutes of footage of the Haifa area it says was taken by one of its drones that entered Israeli airspace and then returned to Lebanon. The drone, called Dukhifat in Hebrew - which ironically is Israel's national bird the Hoopoe, took video and stills of Haifa port, residential neighborhoods in the city, a shopping mall and a factory for the Rafael defense company, and also documented the tracking of a moving vehicle.
Haifa is 27 kilometers (17 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The Lebanese terrorist organization claims that the drone was launched into Haifa Bay. It is not known when then the video was filmed.
The appears to show details about the facilities at the Rafael defense company factory - including Iron Dome batteries, rocket engine depots, David's Slingshot facilities and radar. The UAV also photographed the Savioni Yam neighborhood in Kiryat Yam, apartment towers, a commercial center, and a supermarket.
In the part where the Haifa port is photographed, ship hangars, a Naval base and structures that support special units, and the logistics aid ship "Bat Yam" were recorded.
According to Hezbollah, several warships also were photographed, as well as fuel tanks stationed in the port and the port's petrochemical facilities.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, said in November that Hezbollah had been sending surveillance drones over Haifa.
Meanwhile, rocket fire in the north was renewed while Amos Hochstein, U.S. President Joe Biden's special envoy to the Middle East, is visiting the region in attempts to prevent escalation on the northern border. During Hochstein's visit to Lebanon, a sequence of warning alarms was heard throughout the Western Galilee around 3 p.m.. Residents reported afterwards that fires broke out in several sites where burning shrapnel fell near Shlomi, and at least one of them may have started as a result of interceptors falling.
At the same time, fire crews and members of the Nature and Parks Authority have been working in Metula for several hours following a fire that broke out in an open area as a result of mortar fire from Lebanon.
Earlier on Tuesday, for the first time in three days, Hezbollah took responsibility for an attack on what it called a "military outpost" in Israeli territory using a UAV" and claimed that a "direct hit" was recorded.
The IDF continued its attacks in Lebanon. The IDF spokesman warned against a wider escalation with Hezbollah, which could be devastating to Lebanon and the region.
In Lebanon, it was reported that a UAV attacked a vehicle north of Tyre. According to the reports, three people traveling in the vehicle were injured. In Lebanon, an attack was also reported at the eastern entrance of the town of Al-Adisa in southern Lebanon. No casualties were reported.