The Hezbollah terror group has escalated its attacks against Israel in the past few days, in frequency, scope, and strength of its attacks.

Hezbollah launched about nearly 100 rockets at Ramat HaGolan on Monday. The rockets fell in open areas, causing multiple fires. Firefighting team are fighting massive fires in the Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot areas.

Additionally, explosive drones fell in the Upper Galil and Metula areas. Another explosive drone was intercepted near the Keren Naftali area.

There are massive fires burning out of control on Monday night. Making matters worse, is that firefighting aircraft can not be used to assist in battling the fires, for fear of being shot down by Hezbollah.

The residents of the northern cities of Nahariya and Akko, which haven’t been targeted in months, had to run to their bomb shelters three times on Sunday. Nahariya, which has a population of 66,000, suffered its first direct hit on Sunday when IDF attempts to intercept a drone were unsuccessful. Drone shrapnel was found in Akko, a city with a population of 52,000 people.

Hezbollah’s rocket barrages on Sunday also caused several fires to break out in Katzrin, the largest yishuv in the Golan, with a population of about 8,000. It took 15 firefighting teams and six aircraft to battle the flames and as of Monday, the fires are still burning.

The video below shows the scene at a shopping area in Katzrin on Sunday:

Hezbollah also fired rockets on Sunday at Kiryat Shmona, Margaliot, Yiftach and Ani’am, injuring two people in Kiryat Shmona and causing numerous fires to break out, with many continuing to burn overnight. As of Monday evening, 14 firefighting teams were battling fires as a result of rocket fire at the Kiryat Shmona and Margaliot areas. Residents have been evacuated from their homes.

Earlier on Monday, Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority reported that about 2,500 acres of land were burned in Hezbollah’s attacks on Sunday. Ynet reported that some of the areas that were completely burned will take years to recover.

Sharon Levy, director of the Golan Heights region at the Nature and Parks Authority, said that the fire caused significant damage to the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve and the Zavitan Stream. “This is significant damage, not a small fire,” he said. “Nature has the ability to recover, but the larger the fire, the slower the recovery. It takes years, with trees and animals affected. Some things recover within a year, and some within several years but the area will recover eventually.”

“We feel the north is in trouble,” a Katzrin resident told Ynet on Monday. “It’s closing on us, and we feel there’s no real answer or response to this situation. We feel it’s getting worse.”

“Fear reigns here in Nahariya,” said a city resident, adding that many old buildings in the city lack shelters. He added that even though he lives relatively far from the area where the drone fell, he felt the shock. “I felt the wind coming and blowing me away, really like that. It was very frightening.”

An Akko resident said the siren caught him and his family while they were on their porch. “This siren and the crazy boom at 6 p.m. caught us unprepared,” he said. “A crazy boom shook the entire house. Within five seconds, we were in the shelter, the children and mothers shaking. We’re in their range now.”

He added that there aren’t enough protected spaces in older schools in the city and expressed fears about the economic implications. “Soon the aid will run out, and the state will need to distribute grants, which they haven’t done since January. Until January, we received grants, but ever since, everything stopped.”

“They cut the budgets, and for five months now, we’ve been fighting every day for our salaries, for our mortgage, for anything. There are no discounts in utilities from the Interior Ministry, no consideration with taxes, they collect taxes as usual from all freelancers, and they don’t understand that if they don’t give you a grant, then they should at least lower taxes.”

The video below shows firefighters in Katzrin:

The video below shows the fire in Kiryat Shmona approaching homes in the city:

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)