Hezbollah drones critically wound one in Israel
The risk of war is growing by the day as Israel and Hezbollah escalate their attacks.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched an array of drones at an Israeli military base in northern Israel Thursday, injuring one person as the risk of a full-blown conflict grows.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah, which has been trading near daily fire with Israel since last October, said in a statement that it struck an artillery battalion in Kabri, in the Western Galilee, in response to the repeated Israeli attacks at Lebanese towns and villages.
The group claimed its attack left casualties and Israeli medics confirm that one person was critically injured.
The head of the local municipality in Kabri and medics told the Israeli press that the drone attack left one person with serious injuries.
The Israeli military confirmed the drone attack in the Western Galilee, saying in a post on X that several unmanned aircraft fell in the area.
Hours later, the army claimed to have shot down suspected drones fired from Lebanon over the Upper Galilee before they entered Israeli territory.
Hezbollah has increased attacks in recent weeks, firing hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in the worst bout of violence since the two parties last fought a war in July 2006.
Israel has escalated its rhetoric, threatening to wage an all-out war with Lebanon to eliminate the threat of Hezbollah.
The Israeli army has been striking deeper inside Lebanese territory since the hostilities broke out on Oct. 8, hitting Hezbollah targets in the east and northeast, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the border with Israel. Israel has also killed several Hezbollah commanders in drone strikes and air raids.
Last week, Hezbollah senior commander Mohammad Neameh Nasser, also known as Hajj Abu Neameh, was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern city of Tyre. Israel said Nasser was in charge of Hezbollah’s Aziz Unit, which is responsible for rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israel from southwestern Lebanon.
Another Israeli strike last month killed Taleb Sami Abdullah, the highest-ranking Hezbollah official to be killed since the start of the hostilities, along with three other Hezbollah officials in the southern town of Jouya. Abdullah was the leader of Hezbollah’s al-Nasr unit.
The commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces, Wissam Tawil, was also killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon's Majdal Selm in January.
More than 330 Hezbollah fighters and commanders are estimated to have been killed by Israel since October, according to a Reuters tally. The fighting has also left about 90 civilians dead.
In Israel, 21 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed, according to Israeli figures.
Israel is also believed to have targeted Hezbollah in Syria, where the group has been heavily involved since the 2011 Syrian civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
On Tuesday, a suspected Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle on the Damascus-Beirut highway inside Syrian territory, killing a former bodyguard of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah identified him as Yasser Nimr Qarbash, without revealing details about his position in the group. Security sources told Reuters Qarbash was involved in transporting weapons for Hezbollah.
Israel, which rarely acknowledges such missions, has not commented.
