Four Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others critically injured late Sunday night after a Hezbollah drone attack targeted an Israeli military base south of Haifa. The attack, which Hezbollah claimed as retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut, marks the deadliest assault on Israeli forces since the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah last month.
Israeli authorities reported that two drones were launched from southern Lebanon, one of which was intercepted. Hezbollah’s strike highlights growing Israeli concerns about the group’s expanding drone capabilities.
The Hezbollah attack came amid a wider escalation of violence by Israel. In Lebanon, the health ministry reported that 51 civilians were killed and 174 injured on Sunday due to Israeli airstrikes across the country. The strikes, which targeted various regions, claimed the lives of 22 people in the Mount Lebanon area and 10 more in the southern Nabatieh region. In a particularly deadly raid, five people were killed in Maifadoun, west of Beaufort Castle.
According to Lebanese authorities, more than 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, including 127 children and 261 women, in the last few weeks.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, health authorities confirmed that an Israeli airstrike on a school being used as a shelter killed 22 people, including 15 children. The school, located in central Gaza, was housing displaced families seeking refuge from the relentless bombardment.
Adding to the growing tensions, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, accused Israel of breaching one of its positions in southern Lebanon.
According to UNIFIL, two Israeli tanks forced their way into a peacekeeping base on Sunday, damaging the main gate and firing rounds nearby, which left 15 peacekeepers suffering from skin and gastrointestinal reactions due to smoke exposure. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed the operation was necessary to evacuate injured soldiers, but UNIFIL has refuted this justification.
The targeting of UNIFIL forces has heightened concerns about the safety of the nearly 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in Lebanon. The force has been patrolling the volatile border area between Lebanon and Israel since 1978, yet recent weeks have seen a significant uptick in clashes near the “Blue Line,” the UN-recognized boundary between the two countries.
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