Fire Near Church of the Beatitudes After Rocket Barrage from Lebanon

MAGDALA, Israel — A brush fire appeared near the Christian holy site of the Church of the Beatitudes near the Sea of Galilee after Iran-backed Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at northern Israel on Saturday evening.

Warning sirens were activated throughout the northern Galilee near the border with Lebanon at about 5:23 p.m. across thirteen different communities. Warnings were also issued in five nearby communities an hour later.

No injuries were reported, and there were no warnings in the area of the holy site, which is about 40 kilometers south of the area that the rockets had apparently targeted. But projectiles intercepted by missile defense systems can scatter debris across a wider area, and rockets fired by Hezbollah have caused fires across northern Israel in the recent past.

Several smaller brush fires also appeared on the hillside above the Sea of Galilee, suggesting possible debris impacts.

Iran and its terrorist militias have placed holy sites in danger before — notably in the missile barrage of April 13, when Israel’s defense systems protected Islamic holy sites from impact.

The Church of the Beatitudes is situated near the point at which Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, according to Christian tradition.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.