DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Hezbollah attacked a military base in central Israel, killing four soldiers and seriously wounding seven others on Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the terrorist group since Israel began its offensive in Lebanon. two weeks ago.
The Lebanon-based group Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina in the city in retaliation for Israeli strikes in Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it was targeting Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching a number of missiles to attack Israeli air defense systems when they were attacked by “armies” of drones.
Read more: ‘We Can’t Predict What Israel Will Do.’ Inside Lebanon’s Fear and Chaos
Israel’s rescue service said the attack injured 61 people. With Israel’s air defense systems, it is rare for so many people to be harmed by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire nearly every day in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has escalated.
Israel launched its ground offensive in Lebanon earlier this month with the aim of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group back from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return home.
In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 20 people, including children at a school on Sunday night, according to two local hospitals. The Nuseirat school sheltered some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.
Meanwhile, an explosion occurred early Monday morning outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and injuring around 50, the hospital said. Tents were set on fire, residents of Central Gaza carried the wounded to the hospital.
Hezbollah’s deadly strike in Israel came on the same day the United States announced it would send a new air defense system to Israel to help bolster defenses against ballistic missiles, as well as the troops needed to operate them. An Israeli army spokesman declined to give a timeline.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon—both militant groups backed by Iran—and is expected to hit Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
Netanyahu calls UN peacekeepers ‘human shield’ for Hezbollah
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said that Israeli tanks forced their way into the gates of one area on Sunday morning and destroyed the main gate. Over time they blow smoke near the peacekeepers, causing itchy skin. UNIFIL called the incident “a flagrant violation of international law.”
International criticism is mounting after the Israeli military has repeatedly opened fire on UN troops since the start of operations on the ground in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers were injured in the attack on their positions, most of them blamed on the Israeli army.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, called Sunday’s incident “deeply troubling” and said the attack on the military could amount to a war crime.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah was operating in a peacekeeping operation, without providing evidence.
Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers was returned to the UN post on Sunday when it caught fire. A smokescreen was used to provide cover, they said.
Spokesman for the army, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to communicate regularly with UNIFIL, and any incident of harm to UN troops will be investigated “at the highest level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to withdraw, accusing them of “giving a human shield” to Hezbollah.
“We are sorry for the injuries of UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent these injuries. But the easiest and most obvious way to ensure this is to get them out of danger,” he said in a video addressed to the UN Secretary-General, who is banned from entering Israel.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have been strained since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israeli strike in Lebanon destroys Ottoman-era market
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, draws retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his top brass.
Israel launched a ground-breaking job earlier this month. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, which did not say how many were former Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people have been killed in rocket attacks in Israel, almost half of them soldiers.
Israeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottoman-era market in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person and injuring four.
“The way we make a living has changed,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescuers search buildings made of honeycombs as Israeli drones buzz overhead.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah, without elaborating, and said it continued to target terrorists on Sunday.
Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for the injured in a house destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics stunned and damaged two ambulances.
The Red Cross said the plan was coordinated with the UN forces, which told the Israeli side.
Dead bodies rotted in the streets of northern Gaza
Israel continues to hit what it says are military casualties in Gaza almost every day. The military says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says the militants have regrouped. In the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the refugee camp that was built, which began with the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel, and other places.
Israel has ordered a complete withdrawal from northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after many people left in the first weeks of the war.
The Palestinians fear that Israel intends to completely destroy the north in order to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1.
The army confirmed that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of patients.
Fares Abu Hamza, head of the emergency department at the Gaza Health Ministry, said the bodies of the “martyrs” have not been collected from the streets and are under the rubble.
“We can’t reach them,” he said, asserting that the dogs eat the remains.
The war began when Hamas-led terrorists attacked last year, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, of which one in three is believed to have died.
Israel’s bombing and ground attacks on Gaza have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and left much of the area in ruins. The ministry does not distinguish between militants or civilians, but says women and children account for more than half of the deaths.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
– Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
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