A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
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 defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With Israel’s advanced air-defence systems, it is rare for so many people to be hurt 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.
The attack followed news that the US is sending a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile defence battery to Israel, reportedly along with about 100 US troops, deepening American involvement in the crisis-hit region. The last time the US sent such a missile system to the Middle East was in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ attacks on Israel on 7 October last year. The Pentagon said a Thaad was deployed to southern Israel for drills in 2019, the last and only time it was known to be there.
When asked why he had decided to give permission for the deployment, US president Joe Biden said: “To defend Israel”, which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on 1 October.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of “the broader adjustments the US military has made in recent months” to support Israel and defend US personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.
US officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel, and an Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timeline for the arrival of the system.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, warned earlier on Sunday that the US was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel”. “While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araqchi posted on X.
A Thaad battery usually requires about 100 troops to operate. It counts six truck mounted launchers, with eight interceptors on each launcher, and a powerful radar.
Early on Monday, Hezbollah threatened Israel with more attacks if its offensive in Lebanon continues.
In a statement, the group described the Binyamina attack as a “complex” operation, in which dozens of missiles were launched towards Nahariya and Acre north of Haifa “with the goal of keeping Israeli defence systems busy”.
At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were being used for the first time”, which were were able to “get past Israeli air defence radars without being detected” and hit the training camp in Binyamina south of Haifa.
They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present”, the Hezbollah statement claimed.
In Lebanon, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Sunday denounced attacks that have injured several peacekeepers, his spokesman said, after a UN peacekeeping mission, Unifil, said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forcibly entered a base in the south of the country. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said: “Unifil peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.
“The secretary general reiterates that Unifil personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” he said.
In a statement released late on Sunday, the Israeli military said a Merkava tank had been trying to evacuate injured soldiers and had backed into the Unifil post accidentally while under fire amid a smokescreen.
In a videoed statement addressed to Guterres on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterated Israeli calls for Unifil troops to evacuate. “The time has come for you to withdraw Unifil from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones,” he said. “The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
He later said on X: “Israel will make every effort to prevent Unifil casualties and will do what it takes to win the war.”
The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a string of violations that Unifil, the UN force deployed since 1978 to southern Lebanon, has blamed on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Inside Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people including children at a school on Sunday night, according to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.
Meanwhile, explosions hit early on Monday outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah.
With Associated Press and Reuters