The IDF and Hezbollah on Sunday had one of the most tense days in the North of the nine-day-old war which to date has still mostly been focused on Gaza.
At the same time, the IDF continued to move closer to the point at which it will invade Gaza, though there were bouts of rain during the day and ongoing negotiations internally within Israel about the war's aims as well as external negotiations about evacuating Palestinian civilians and humanitarian issues.
Sirens were heard in western Galilee on Sunday afternoon close to the Lebanon border in the towns of Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Hanita, Gesher HaZiv, Betzet, and Shlomi.
Confusingly, Hamas in Lebanon took responsibility for the rocket fire.
A spokesperson for the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya announced they received eight people who had been wounded by the rocket fire.
Two were taken to the trauma center, they are in a serious but stable condition, both suffering from shrapnel wounds to their limbs, with one more suffering similar injuries but being in a moderate condition.
The remaining five wounded people were in a light condition and were undergoing tests in the emergency room mainly for smoke inhalation and head injuries at press time.
IDF takes action in Lebanon
The IDF responded by attacking military infrastructure in southern Lebanon with helicopters.
Besides Hamas in Lebanon, there were also reports of Hezbollah firing systematically to destroy IDF border surveillance equipment to blind its early warning invasion capabilities, much as Hamas made sure to eliminate many IDF border surveillance capabilities on October 7 as it was invading Israel's Gaza corridor. The IDF returned fire, but Hezbollah has been claiming publicly that it is hitting Israel harder than the hits it is receiving in return.
Hezbollah claims attack on IDF
Further, Hezbollah took responsibility for the firing of anti-tank missiles at IDF outposts near the Lebanon border, killing one man and wounding four others.
On Sunday night, it was released for publication that Lt. Amitai Granot, the son of Rabbi Tamir Granot, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv, was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Hezbollah in a separate incident on Sunday.
As a result, the IDF announced on Sunday the creation of a four-kilometer "security zone" on the border to prevent any non-residents from entering the area.
Later on Sunday night, the IDF said it had struck additional Hezbollah infrastructure near the border in response to the earlier incidents.
כוחות צה"ל תקפו תשתיות צבאיות של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בלבנון לפני זמן קצר, זאת בתגובה לירי שבוצע אתמול לעבר שטח ישראל pic.twitter.com/egfAeGIG0J
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 15, 2023
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah to start lowering the temperature and that Israel's patience with its ongoing keeping the northern border tense could run out, but that Israel also did not want to get into a war in the North.
A Hezbollah spokesperson said: "There are incidents on the border, this does not mean that Hezbollah has decided to fully enter the war."
United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL said on Sunday its headquarters in south Lebanon had been hit by a rocket.
"Our headquarters in Naqoura was hit by a rocket and we are working to verify from where. Our peacekeepers were not in shelters at the time. Fortunately, no one was hurt," UNIFIL said in a statement.
There have been repeated periodic incidents where Hezbollah or its supporters have attacked UNIFIL personnel with the peacekeeping group nearly always turning the other cheek and trying to downplay incidents.
UNIFIL has been deterred from conflict with Hezbollah since the early years of its mandate after the 2006 Second Lebanon War when the terror group was extremely aggressive against UNIFIL if and when it tried to disarm any Hebzollah forces.
Meanwhile, IDF Chief-of-Staff (Lt.-Gen.) Herzi Halevi told troops in the South, "our role is to go into Gaza, to go to the places where Hamas is stationed, acting, planning, and firing, and to strike them very hard, in every place, every officer, every low ranking functionary, to destroy infrastructure."
"In one word: to win," he told them.
Halevi said he knew that the troops would succeed in fundamentally altering Gaza's reality to make Israel safer.
Earlier on Sunday, IDF Chief Spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said that "the IDF is ready to crush Hamas' rule" as it prepares for likely the largest land invasion of Gaza since the 2005 withdrawal.
At the same time, Hagari said that Hamas had failed to launch any new even small invasions into the Gaza corridor from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning and failed to launch rockets for half a day. However, by Sunday night Hamas had launched more rockets both on the Gaza corridor as well as on the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas.
Hagari had warned Israeli citizens not to become complacent, noting that Hamas still "has significant capabilities" even after overwhelming IDF air strikes.
Hagari said that the IDF killed Bilal al-Khadra, the Khan Younis commander of Hamas’ October 7 invasion forces. Over the weekend, another Hamas terrorist who was referred to as the overall mastermind of the Hamas invasion was nabbed by the IDF, as well as a senior official in Islamic Jihad’s rocket firing apparatus.
Once again, Hagari complained that Hamas is systematically preventing many Palestinian civilians from leaving the North, from which the IDF warned them to leave over the weekend.
He said he hoped more Palestinian civilians would join the hundreds of thousands already moving south of Nahal Aza, but that Hamas was trying to prop up its failing rule and to use the civilians as human shields.
Further, he said that the US had sent a second naval strike force, the Dwight D. Eisenhower group, to the region to back Israel versus any adventurism from Iran or Hezbollah, along with the Gaerald Force naval strike group which was already sent to the region several days ago.
Moreover, he said that some parts of the country might start to gradually return to physical school from zoom school, depending on ongoing security developments.
He said the North was still a dangerous front, but that the IDF was responding to all provocations to keep it off the major war playing field.
Likewise he said IDF efforts in the West Bank had kept the area relatively quiet, though IDF raids for terror arrests and extra guard troops are working hard all of the time.
Hagari put the IDF's total dead updated as 286, and total missing or kidnapped at 126.
He declined to say how many of the more than 300,000 reservists are posted in the South for the invasion versus on other borders, saying strategic ambiguity was important to "confuse the enemy."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the families of kidnapped and missing Israelis for the first time on Sunday evening.
During the meeting, the representatives underscored their demand that the government work to free the hostages taken by Hamas immediately and by any means possible.
They told the prime minister that they were aware of the complexity of the issue as well as the opportunities presented to Israel in past days to negotiate the release of the hostages.
Netanyahu, in turn, told the representatives that he was committed to making the hostages' return one of the primary objectives in the war.
There are also ongoing negotiations between the US, other Middle Eastern countries, Israel and Hamas about humanitarian issues, including creating a corridor for evacuations and for sending humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Reportedly on Sunday night, Israel ended its shutting off of water in Gaza at the request of the US and under some rising criticism.
It appeared that Gaza's electricity was still being kept shut off by Israel.
Earlier, Netanyahu convened Israel's expanded emergency cabinet for the first time, saying the national unity on display sent a message at home and abroad as the country gears up to "demolish Hamas" in Gaza.
The meeting, held in military headquarters in Tel Aviv, began with ministers standing for a moment's silence in memory of the 1,300 Israelis killed in Hamas' shocking October 7 onslaught, a video released by Netanyahu's office showed.
Welcoming former opposition lawmaker Benny Gantz, who joined the government along with several members of his party last week, Netanyahu said all ministers were "working around the clock, with a united front."
"Hamas thought we would be demolished. It is we who will demolish Hamas," Netanyahu said, adding that the show of unity "sends a clear message to the nation, the enemy and the world."
Reuters contributed to this story.