Hezbollah Drone Strike Wounds Dozens in Northern Israel
The New York Times
Weeks after Israel launched a devastating offensive in Lebanon against the militants, their strike south of Haifa showed that they can still inflict damage of their own.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it sent a “swarm of attack drones” toward an Israeli military base on Sunday. Dozens of people in the area were wounded in one strike, some of them critically, according to Israeli emergency volunteer groups and area hospitals.
The attack in Binyamina, a town in the Haifa district of northern Israel, came a week after Israel broadened its invasion into southern Lebanon and inflicted heavy bombardments on Hezbollah strongholds around Beirut. But the strike in Binyamina made clear that Hezbollah remains a formidable opponent.
The Israel military said it was still investigating the strike, which was reported to have wounded at least five people critically.
After a clash with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon earlier in the day, Israeli tanks entered a U.N. peacekeeping base, drawing a protest from the U.N. mission.
The tank incursion came after days of criticism of Israeli forces over attacks that have wounded at least four peacekeepers in Lebanon. Israel forces crossed into that country two weeks ago to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets and drones across the frontier.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, has been stationed in southern Lebanon for four decades, tasked with trying to keep the border area free of weaponry and military forces. But over the past year, Hezbollah has stepped up rockets on Israel from there, and Israel last month began an intense air and ground operation to eliminate the militants across Lebanon.
