Four Israeli soldiers are dead and 67 are hurt after Hezbollah aerial attack last night in what was labelled as the ‘deadliest strike’ since the invasion of Lebanon began.
The strike in the Binyamina area followed a barrage of rockets from Lebanon.
It was unclear whether the victims were soldiers or civilians. Of the three drones launched from Lebanon, two were intercepted but one breached Israeli air defences.
It appeared to be completely undetected, so no warning sirens were activated.
Yesterday the Israel Defence Force said it had conducted 200 airstrikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in the past 24 hours, deploying four divisions to dismantle the group’s infrastructure in the south of the country.
But it is struggling to significantly curb rocket fire on Israel.
Yesterday’s strike was the second time in two days that a drone has got through. On Saturday, during the Yom Kippur holiday, a drone hit a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.
Four Israeli soldiers are dead and 67 are hurt after Hezbollah aerial attack last night in what was labelled as the ‘deadliest strike’ since the invasion of Lebanon began
A military ambulance drives near the scene where a drone from Lebanon attacked Israel
Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by ‘squadrons’ of drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With Israel’s advanced air-defense systems, it’s rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has escalated.
Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
Meanwhile, explosions hit early Monday outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Tents caught fire, causing panic, and some people carried the injured into the hospital.
Hezbollah’s deadly strike in Israel came the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to operate it. An Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timeline.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – both Iran-backed militant groups – and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
The Lebanese health ministry says more than 1,300 people have died since Israel stared attacking Hezbollah last month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) has called on the UN chief to move peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way’, alleging Hezbollah was using them as ‘human shields’
An Israeli soldier stands by as a military helicopter takes off after it dropped off patients that were injured in a drone attack
An ambulance arrives at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina
An Israeli battle tank seen entering Lebanon from northern Israel at the southern Lebanese border point of Naqoura (pictured) on Sunday
Israeli security forces and first responders gather at the site of a drone strike as an ambulance drives past
A Palestinian man carries an injured child after an Israeli air strike in Deir al Balah
Palestinians search for the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment in Deir al-Balah
Israeli troops patrolling near a United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the southern Lebanon’s Naqoura region near the border
A civil defence member stands amid damage in the aftermath of what security sources said was an Israeli strike on a market in southern Lebanon
Last night, an Israeli air strike killed at least 20 people including children at a school in Gaza.
The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.
An estimated 30,000 have died in Gaza since Israel invaded in response to Hamas’s October 7 attacks last year, in which 1,195 Israelis were killed.
Yesterday’s drone strike came as the US announced it would send a new air-defence system to Israel to bolster its protection against missiles.
Meanwhile, UN secretary General António Guterres has warned that attacks on peacekeepers ‘may constitute a war crime’, after five were injured by the IDF.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the UN chief to move peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon out of ‘harm’s way’, alleging Hezbollah was using them as ‘human shields’.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
