BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it fired a barrage of rockets at a military base deep inside Israel early Sunday, after Israel carried out an airstrike more than a day earlier. at least 37 people killedincluding one of the militant group’s high-ranking leaders as well as women and children.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the rockets had hit their target. Israel’s emergency services reported that a man was slightly injured by shrapnel from a rocket intercepted in a village in the Lower Galilee.

Local media reported that rockets from Lebanon were intercepted in the areas around Haifa and Nazareth. The Israeli military said only that it had observed the launch of “about ten rockets” from Lebanon, most of which were intercepted.

Hezbollah said it fired “dozens of Fadi-1 and Fadi-2 rockets” – a new type of weapon the group had not used before – at the Ramat David air base southeast of Haifa “in response to repeated Israeli attacks on various Lebanese regions that resulted in many civilian martyrs.”

In July, the group released a video that allegedly contained footage they had filmed from the base using surveillance drones.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged heavy fire on Saturday as rescue teams in Beirut searched through the rubble of a residential building that had been razed to the ground by the Israeli attack the previous day.

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel for a wave of apparently remote-controlled explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members on Tuesday and Wednesday. At least 37 people – including two children – were killed and around 3,000 injured. Blame for the attacks has been widely placed on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

On Friday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed an eight-story building in a densely populated neighborhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs while Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, Israel said. Among those killed were Ibrahim Akila senior Hezbollah official who commanded the group’s special forces, the Radwan Force. Also killed was Ahmed Wahbi, a senior commander of the group’s military wing, the Israeli military said.

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters on Saturday that at least seven women and three children were killed in Friday’s airstrike on the building. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized.

It was the deadliest attack on Beirut since the months-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and the death toll could rise: 23 people are still missing, a government official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the attack disrupted the group’s chain of command and eliminated Akil, who he said was responsible for the deaths of Israeli soldiers and has been on the U.S. wanted list for years.

“This is our obligation to the fallen and their families. This is our obligation to the people of the north. And this is a clear message to all those who want to harm us,” he posted on X.

The Israeli government has prepared for an expected increase in Hezbollah rocket attacks by imposing new limits on the size of gatherings and other restrictions in the north of the country, near Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah confirms the death of more than a dozen activists

Akil, the main target, had been wanted by the US for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut and the hostage-taking of Americans and Germans in Lebanon in the 1980s. The US State Department last year offered a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his “identification, location, arrest and/or conviction”.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Akil’s death “a happy ending” and said he had “American blood on his hands” because of the attack on the embassy.

“You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But a lot of families and a lot of people still live with it every day.”

Wahbi was described as a commander who played a key role within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli prison in southern Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” during an ambush in southern Lebanon in 1997 that killed 12 Israeli soldiers.

Hezbollah announced overnight that 15 of its members had been killed by Israeli forces, but did not disclose how or where they died. Meanwhile, Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on Saturday that 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Friday’s attack.

Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket attacks continue

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fierce attacks on Saturday. The Israeli military confirmed that about 90 rockets were fired at northern Israel and that Israel hit more than 400 rocket launchers in Lebanon during the day.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman, expected an increase in rocket attacks and announced updated safety guidelines for the areas north of Haifa. These include caps on gatherings of 30 people outdoors and 300 people indoors. Work and classes can continue if people reach the shelters in time. However, because students and teachers in some places would not be able to reach the shelters in time, Sunday classes were canceled in at least two border regions within an hour of the announcement.

Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said ending Hezbollah’s attacks on the north of the country, allowing displaced people to return to their homes, was now an official war aim as Israel considers a broader military operation in Lebanon that could trigger a full-scale conflict. Israel has since deployed a powerful military force to its northern border.

Hezbollah has declared that it will not stop its attacks until a ceasefire is reached between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip,

Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire regularly since the Hamas war. Attack of October 7 on southern Israel was the trigger for the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. However, previous cross-border attacks mainly hit evacuated areas in northern Israel and sparsely populated parts of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah bombings preceded the Israeli attack

The strike on Friday took place hours after Hezbollah launched one of the heaviest bombardments of northern Israel in almost a year, targeting mainly Israeli military sites. The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.

The militant group said its latest rocket salvo was a response to Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, but this happened days after Mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers And Walkie-Talkies At least 37 people were killed, including two children, and about 3,000 others were injured.

Abiad, Lebanon’s health minister, said on Saturday that hospitals across the country were filled with injured people.

The attacks, using pagers and walkie-talkies, are widely attributed to Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement. They mark a significant escalation in the 11-month-long conflict on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

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Associated Press writers Jack Jeffery and Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem, White House correspondent Zeke Miller in Wilmington, Delaware, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.