The Hezbollah terror group on Wednesday morning fired a heavy rocket barrage of at least 30 rockets at Kiryat Shmona and nearby areas, scoring direct hits on houses, factories and cars.

A construction worker in a carpentry workshop in Kiryat Shmona was killed after the building suffered a direct rocket hit. Rescue workers pulled his lifeless body from the burning building and began searching for other possible victims.

MDA paramedics said that when they arrived at the building they saw thick smoke. “We immediately began carrying out searches and pulled out a 30-year-old worker who was uninjured. He told us that his friend was still trapped in the building. A large number of IDF, police, and fire and rescue forces arrived at the scene and after complex rescue operations, a 25-year-old worker was pulled out, unconscious, not breathing, and without a pulse – with severe multi-system trauma. We were forced to pronounce him dead at the scene.”

He was later identified as Zahar Bashara, 32, a resident of a Druze village in Ramat HaGolan who was the sole supporter of his extended family. His death increases the death toll of Israelis killed by Hezbollah since the start of the war to 18.

An Israeli man was injured by rocket shrapnel on a highway near Kiryat Shmona. Five others were lightly injured in the attack. Ziv Hospital in Tzfas stated early Wednesday afternoon that six victims of the attack were treated in their trauma unit. Two were already released and the other four are in light condition.

Police and firefighters handled several rocket impact sites in Kiryat Shmona. Other rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome over the city. One rocket fell in a new construction project for student dormitories in the heart of the city, Ynet reported.

Below is security camera footage of a rocket hitting a building:

Shortly after the attack, Hezbollah took responsibility for the barrage of rockets at Kiryat Shmona, stating that it was in response to the IDF’s strike in the Habbariyeh region in southern Lebanon overnight Tuesday, which killed at least seven people.

The IDF claimed responsibility for the strike on Wednesday morning, saying that “fighter jets struck a military building in the Habbariyeh area in southern Lebanon. A significant terrorist affiliated with the Jamaa al-Islamiya terror organization who advanced terror attacks against Israel was eliminated along with other terrorists who were in the building.”

According to Israeli media reports, the eliminated terrorists were operatives of the al-Fajr Forces – the military arm of the Jamaa al-Islamiya organization, headed by Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush. The head of the terror group directed various terror acts against Israel, including the firing of rockets. He was also planning an attack to avenge the assassination of senior Hamas official in Lebanon Saleh al-Arouri.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)