Hezbollah Drone Kills Soldiers, Israel Intensifies Bombing

AFP
Islamabad: Israel’s military reported that a Hezbollah drone attack killed four soldiers at one of its northern bases on Sunday, while it escalated its bombardments of Lebanon and fought militants across the border.

The attack occurred at a military training camp in Binyamina, near Haifa, marking the deadliest strike on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, emergency services reported over 60 people injured.

Meanwhile, authorities in Gaza reported that the death toll from an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people had risen to 15, including entire families.
As fighting continued between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, United Nations peacekeepers said they were once again caught in the crossfire.

The UN said Israeli troops “forcibly” entered a UN position with two tanks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the force to withdraw from the area. Israel’s military explained that a tank had accidentally backed into the UN post while under fire.

Hezbollah vows more severe attacks

Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching “a squadron of attack drones” at the Binyamina camp, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Haifa.
The group said the strike was in retaliation for Israeli attacks, including airstrikes on Thursday that Lebanon’s health ministry reported killed at least 22 people in central Beirut.

Hezbollah issued a warning to Israel, stating that “what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it continues its aggression against our noble and dear people.”

Israeli volunteer rescue service United Hatzalah reported that teams in Binyamina assisted “over 60 wounded people” with injuries ranging from mild to critical.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets and drones into Israel for over a year in support of Hamas militants in Gaza. However, since late September, its strikes have reached deeper into Israeli territory.

Israel’s advanced air defenses have intercepted most of these projectiles, resulting in relatively few casualties from strikes or falling debris.

Defending ‘blessed land’

Israel’s recent strikes have increasingly targeted areas beyond Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Beirut, as well as in southern and eastern Lebanon.
Israel’s air force stated that it had struck “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities” and other objectives, while ground troops “eliminated dozens” of fighters.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli forces had “escalated their attacks” on southern Lebanon with multiple airstrikes hitting border villages.

The NNA also reported that an Israeli strike on Mayfadoun, near Nabatiyeh in southern Lebanon, killed five people and wounded another.

Hezbollah said its fighters engaged in multiple clashes with Israeli forces attempting to “infiltrate” border villages. Before the drone strike, Hezbollah claimed to have fired rockets at a “base in southern Haifa.”

The group later broadcast an audio recording of its slain leader, Hassan Nasrallah, urging fighters to “defend this holy and blessed land and this honorable people.”
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut on September 27, along with several senior Hezbollah commanders.

Israel’s military said approximately 115 Hezbollah-fired projectiles had entered Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon.

A Hezbollah fighter was captured exiting a tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, marking the first such event since the ground offensive began, according to Israeli military reports.

‘Shocking violations’
UN peacekeepers accused Israeli troops of breaching a gate and entering one of their positions early Sunday in southern Lebanon, the latest in a series of incidents reported by the UNIFIL mission since Thursday.

Five Blue Helmets have been injured so far, sparking international outrage.

“Two IDF (Israeli military) Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position” in the Ramia area before withdrawing 45 minutes later, UNIFIL stated.

Israel’s military later said a tank had “backed several meters into a UNIFIL post” while under fire and attempting to evacuate wounded soldiers.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu called on the UN to move peacekeepers out of southern Lebanon, claiming their presence was providing Hezbollah terrorists with “human shields.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “attacks” against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime.”

The UNIFIL force, numbering around 9,500 troops, operates in southern Lebanon under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in the region.

Three Lebanese soldiers were injured on Sunday when Israeli forces fired on military vehicles in the Marjayoun area, the Lebanese army reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, urged Iran to support “a general de-escalation” in Lebanon and Gaza, according to the French presidency.

US bolsters Israel’s air defenses

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli shelling killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
“The school was hit by a barrage of Israeli artillery, killing 15 martyrs, including children, women, and entire families, and injuring 50,” said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesperson for the agency.

Israel’s military said it was “investigating the reports.”

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said late Sunday that a joint WHO-Red Cross operation successfully resupplied two hospitals in northern Gaza.
“WHO and partners finally reached Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week,” he posted on X.

Hamas initiated the conflict in Gaza with its deadliest attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. The number includes hostages killed in captivity.

The health ministry in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, reports that over 42,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel began its military campaign. The UN has confirmed these figures as reliable.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed over 1,300 people since September 23, according to an AFP tally of official sources, surpassing the 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, killed in the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war. In that conflict, 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died.

The Pentagon has announced the deployment of a high-altitude anti-missile system and its crew to Israel to help protect against potential attacks from Iran.

Additional input from 24 News and APP.