Hezbollah fires missiles as Israel fights 2 battles on its holiest day

Country faces severe diplomatic backlash over wounding of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon

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JERUSALEM - Hezbollah said it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base on Oct 12, as Israeli troops battled militants in Lebanon and Gaza on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Cities around Israel were quiet with markets closed, flights stopped and public transport halted as observant Jews fasted and prayed on the Day of Atonement. But with the country at war against Hezbollah and Hamas, troops remained engaged in combat on the northern and southern frontiers amid a firestorm of criticism over the wounding of four UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which has lost its leader and a long list of key commanders to Israeli strikes since the start of the war in Lebanon, on Oct 12 said it struck an army base with missiles to the south of the city of Haifa.

Hezbollah fighters were "targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of... missiles", the group said in a statement.

Air raid sirens sounded on Oct 12 in northern Israel, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.

In the hours ahead of Yom Kippur, Israel faced severe diplomatic backlash over what it said was a "hit" on a United Nations peacekeeping position in Lebanon.

Two Sri Lankan peacekeepers were hurt in the second such incident in two days, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, Unifil, said on Oct 11.

The military said Israeli soldiers had responded with fire to "an immediate threat" around 50m from the Unifil post.