Counterpoint

For the first time a rocket attack has struck the Israeli port city of Haifa:

A rocket slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday evening. There were no reported casualties when the rockets hit the Stella Maris area near French Carmel.

Hezbollah denied on Thursday evening firing the rocket at Haifa, after a day in which two people were killed and another 120 were wounded when scores of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas rained down across northern Israel.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon told reporters in Washington the strike on Haifa was a “major, major escalation” but Hizbollah.

Following the attack on Haifa, the IDF Home Front Command ordered residents of Haifa, Haifa’s northern Krayot suburbs, Acre, Tirat Hacarmel and Nesher to stay near their homes and listen to radios.

The BBC reports:

Hezbollah had said it would attack Haifa if Israeli planes bombed Beirut.

It had fired dozens of rockets into Israel in the past two days, killing at least two Israelis and injuring dozens.

But until the Haifa attack none had gone further than 20km (12 miles) inside the country.

Haifa is more than 30km (18 miles) from the Lebanese border and had been thought to be out of Hezbollah’s range.

Israeli police said two rockets had fallen on a Christian area of Haifa called Stella Maris.

Yet another serious escalation.

UPDATE: Mere Rhetoric reports that at least one of the rockets which struck Haifa was an Iranian Fajr-7 which are known to be in Hezbollah’s inventory.