DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip—A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the terrorist group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.
The Lebanon-based 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 defense systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.
Israel’s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With Israel’s advanced air-defense systems, it’s rare for so many people to be injured 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.
Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the terrorist group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
Inside Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people at a school 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 Monday outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and injuring about 50 others, the hospital said. Tents caught fire, and residents of the Central Gaza community carried the injured into the hospital.
Hezbollah’s deadly strike in Israel came the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to operate it. An Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timeline.
Netanyahu Calls UN Peacekeepers ‘Human Shield’ for Hezbollah
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one position early Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident a “further flagrant violation of international law.”Israel’s military says Hezbollah operates in the peacekeepers’ vicinity.
Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a U.N. post Sunday while under fire. A smoke screen was used to provide cover, they said.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL, and any instance of U.N. forces being harmed will be investigated at “the highest level.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.
