By Rami Amichay

TIRA, Israel (Reuters) – Rockets fired from Lebanon wounded 11 people in central Israel on Saturday, Israeli emergency services said, after one hit a house, as prospects for a ceasefire dimmed.

Fighting has intensified between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah group since September, and hopes that US efforts for a ceasefire have faded this week.

“I came out and saw dust, children screaming, women screaming and everyone went to the house that was hit,” said Qasim Mohab, a resident of Tira, where the missile hit. “We were able to evacuate and save those inside the house and thank God we were blessed that no one was killed.”

When the rockets struck, Hezbollah said they targeted a military base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Israel’s ambulance service said 11 people were injured by shrapnel. Air raid sirens continued to sound in northern Israel, while rocket and drone attacks in Lebanon continued, the military said.

On Friday, Lebanon’s Health Ministry announced that 52 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on more than a dozen towns in the Baalbek region, which has UNESCO-listed Roman ruins.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had killed two Hezbollah commanders in the Tire area on Friday. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.

Iran-backed Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas a day after Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back in Gaza, according to Israeli accounts .

More than 43,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave, and at least 2,897 people have been killed in Lebanon, the health ministry said on Friday.

Seventy-one people from Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories were killed by Hezbollah fire, according to Israeli authorities.

(Reporting by Rami Amichay in Tira, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Menna Alaa El Din, Hatem Maher and Jaidaa Taha in Cairo; Editing by Sandra Maler, Edmund Klamann and William Mallard)