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Despite the danger, older residents, firefighters, medics and a few small-business owners chose to stay put in Kiryat Shmona, the northernmost Israeli city near the border with Lebanon.
By Natan Odenheimer
Reporting from Kiryat Shmona, Israel
Sept. 25, 2024Updated 6:24 p.m. ET
Puffs of smoke were still rising from a storage center a day after a barrage of rockets fired by Hezbollah pounded Kiryat Shmona, the northernmost Israeli city near the border with Lebanon.
Refrigerators stored at the site were charred and mangled, a small sign of the damage Hezbollah has inflicted on northern Israel since the Lebanese militant group and the Israeli military had escalated their attacks against each other over the past week.
“Kiryat Shmona has turned into Hezbollah’s playground,” said Guy Hayun, 45, the security coordinator for the city over the past year.
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Hezbollah started firing rockets and drones at northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, its ally, a day after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 in Israel. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Hezbollah has said it will not stop firing on Israel until the war in Gaza ends. The group has fired 9,300 rockets at Israel since the start of this conflict, killing 48 people as a direct result of a strike — half civilians and the rest security personnel — according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Kiryat Shmona has been targeted with the greatest number of strikes.
