Under Hezbollah fire on the bay of Haifa

• Published date: 23 April 2024
• Author: SETH J. FRANTZMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The large maritime port of Haifa is visible, with its cranes and loading docks and piers where container ships can disgorge cargo. Many of those ships are anchored off the coast

Last Passover, in 2023, terrorists in Lebanon launched a barrage of rockets at the northern border of Shlomi. Therefore, I expected escalation this Passover because Israel is in a six month war in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon feels impunity to rain down rockets on northern Israel.

Over 3,200 rockets, drones and missiles have been fired by Hezbollah.

However, the bay of Haifa and the cities near it, such as Acre and Haifa, have not usually been targeted by Hezbollah. This is because of the unofficial "rules" of the current war in the north. Despite daily Hezbollah attacks to which the IDF respond, neither side usually strikes deep into the other state.

This means Hezbollah targets northern Israeli communities that have mostly been evacuated, but doesn't target the city of Nahariya, which has not been evacuated. The Krayot, the numerous suburbs north of Haifa, have also not been targeted.

That changed on April 23, 2024

I was at the beach along with hundreds of people. Some were kite-surfing. Others were fishing. Mostly people were just wading in the water. There is a lifeguard station at the far northern part of the beach of Kiryat Yam.

It is called the 'Virgin' beach for some reason, and there is a small shop and new sandwich place called the "Betula" or "virgin" sandwich. Acre is visible in the distance, several miles up the bay.

The morning was full of signs of possible escalation. There were the sound of warplanes in the air. Hezbollah said overnight that Mohammad Khalil Atiyeh, a member of its Radwan force, was killed.

The IDF said that in the morning "IAF aircraft struck and eliminated Hussein Ali Azkul, a significant terrorist operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defense Unit in southern Lebanon. Azkul was heavily involved in the planning and execution of terrorist attacks against Israel and was involved in the Hezbollah's Aerial unit's routine activities.

His elimination significantly harms the capabilities of Hezbollah's Aerial Unit."

I thought that this would likely mean there might be escalation.

I heard the sound of booms around 13:08 and the IDF said that "Following the sirens that sounded in northern Israel regarding a hostile aircraft infiltration, a short while ago, the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target off the coast of...