AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Israeli-Lebanese border is seeing the most significant escalation in almost a year of war. This morning, Israel's military said about 150 rockets, missiles and drones were fired toward Israel, most from Lebanon by the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. Some landed near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, destroying homes and sending residents to seek shelter. Israeli airstrikes also hit hundreds of targets in Southern Lebanon. NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Haifa and joins us now. Hi, Daniel.
RASCOE: The Israeli-Lebanese border is seeing the most significant escalation in almost a year of war. This morning, Israel's military said about 150 rockets, missiles and drones were fired toward Israel, most from Lebanon by the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah. Some landed near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, destroying homes and sending residents to seek shelter. Israeli airstrikes also hit hundreds of targets in Southern Lebanon. NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Haifa and joins us now. Hi, Daniel.
DANIEL ESTRIN, HOST:
Hi, Ayesha.
RASCOE: Describe what it's like there where you are.
RASCOE: Describe what it's like there where you are.
ESTRIN: I'm actually sitting in an underground parking garage that has been turned into an underground hospital as this conflict escalates. This is Rambam Hospital. It's the biggest Israeli hospital in northern Israel. It's about 30 miles from the Lebanese border. And by order of the military, I am seeing soldiers and medical staff wheeling down nearly the entire hospital's patients. Staff are bringing in medical supplies. They're setting up a delivery room for new births, an ICU and they're also preparing to take in patients from two other hospitals in the area. And the hospital staff say that by this evening, 1,000 patients will be down here in this parking garage. We spoke with the deputy director of the hospital, Dr. Avi Weissman.
AVI WEISSMAN: We're happy to be a normal country that can take care of their citizens and protect them even at the worst times.
ESTRIN: The medical staff here tell us that they feel just how big this moment is, and they're preparing for more attacks.
RASCOE: What are Israeli leaders saying about what might come next?
RASCOE: What are Israeli leaders saying about what might come next?
ESTRIN: Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is saying that Hezbollah is feeling a series of blows it did not imagine. Israel's defense minister says that the military will continue to act until Israel can return the residents of Israel to the North, near the border with Lebanon. Remember, this conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has been going on for nearly a year. Many thousands of Israelis have been evacuated. Many Lebanese civilians evacuated from the border area.
And there has been a dramatic turn this past week, a series of Israeli blows to Hezbollah with pagers and walkie-talkies blowing up in Lebanon, a deadly strike on top Hezbollah operatives. And every day seems to bring a new escalation. And so we are now looking at a city - this is the city of Haifa - where schools are closed today. University, beaches are closed, and the population is bracing for more attacks.
RASCOE: And what is Hezbollah saying?
RASCOE: And what is Hezbollah saying?
ESTRIN: Well, it says it fired toward a major air base in northern Israel early this morning. There's no confirmation from Israel about whether that base was hit. But Lebanese health officials are saying that the death toll has risen from a deadly Israeli airstrike in Lebanon. A few days ago, at least 45 people were killed in that strike, the deadliest strike by Israel on Lebanon in about 20 years.
So the question now is whether Hezbollah is ready and capable of a major retaliation on Israel now after that intelligence breach with all of its pagers exploding, injuring perhaps thousands of its operatives. But the Hezbollah leader has said Israelis will not be able to return safely to their homes on the northern border until Gaza is quiet, until the war is over. The war is not over there. Just today alone, at least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes according to Gaza health officials.
RASCOE: That's NPRs Daniel Estrin in northern Israel. Daniel, thank you so much.
RASCOE: That's NPRs Daniel Estrin in northern Israel. Daniel, thank you so much.
ESTRIN: You're welcome.
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