Four Israeli soldiers were killed and 51 wounded, including seven seriously, in a drone attack launched Sunday night by Hezbollah against a military base in Binyaminah in northern Israel, according to a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
For its part, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the strike on the military base, dedicating the attack to the memory of its former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed on September 27 by an Israeli strike in Beirut.
According to the IDF, the dead are Israeli soldiers. Their families have been notified and their names will be released later. At the same time, the Israeli army asks that rumors and names of wounded people not be spread and that the families be respected.
אמש, כלי טיס בלתי מאויש של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה פגע בבסיס צבאי סמוך לבנימינה. כללל הפצועים פונו לבתי החולים והודעה נמסרה למשפחותיהם.
באירוע נהרגו ארבעה חייילי צה״ל ושבעה חיילים נפצעו באורח קשה> pic.twitter.com/H2z3fbm2Mz
– צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 13, 2024</blockquote
Photos show a hall was hit where a crowd of people were gathered.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that Hezbollah launched three drones at Israel. Two were shot down off Haifa, but the third struck in Binyaminah.
Hezbollah launched drone attacks on Israel. One drone hit the Binyamina sector causing 67 wounded. Some wounded in serious condition and some in more serious, life threatening condition. pic.twitter.com/qIs5zDkwbF
– Artes (@Artes_EU) October 13, 2024</blockquote
Hezbollah threatens Israel with more strikes if it continues its attacks in Lebanon
Hezbollah has threatened Israel with more strikes if it continues its attacks in Lebanon.
In a statement, Hezbollah said that “the resistance promises the enemy” that the attack “south of Haifa was only a foretaste of what awaits him if he decides to continue his attacks against our people.”
The strike on the military base in Binyaminah was the deadliest in Israel since the start of Israeli military operations in Lebanon on September 23.
Haaretz reports that the drone was launched from Lebanon. It is not clear what route it followed but it appears that no alarm sirens were activated.
Sources say the air defense system spotted and intercepted one but the other was lost to radar. The systems showed no sign of anything and there was a certainty that both UAVs had been destroyed by the interceptor missiles. But the second drone eventually hit the target, which was the military base in the area.
The drone according to IDF leaks is a “Mirsad 1”, of Iranian manufacture. Hezbollah has hundreds of such drones in its arsenal and Israel has already intercepted dozens of them in the last 15 days.
The Mirsad 1s develop a speed of close to 200 kilometers just before impact and carry warheads with 20 kilograms of explosives.
Investigations by Israeli army special forces into what happened are continuing while civilian personnel have been evacuated from the base in addition to the wounded.
On Sunday, Israeli authorities relaxed population protection measures for areas of the country in the north and central regions. For now, it is unclear how the attack in Binyaminah will affect the measures.
Throughout the day today, some 150 rocket launches were detected from Lebanon into Israel, with the IDF claiming it has decreased significantly. However, sources familiar with Hezbollah’s activities told Reuters on Friday that the organization is preparing for a long war of attrition.
51 killed and 174 wounded on Saturday by Israeli strikes in Lebanon
Lebanon’s health ministry said yesterday that 51 people were killed on Saturday and 174 wounded in Israeli strikes in the country.
According to a French News Agency count based on official figures, more than 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah and Israel entered open warfare with each other on September 23.
Gaza shelling – We hit Hamas command center, IDF says
At least 15 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded Sunday night by an Israeli strike on a school where displaced Palestinians had taken refuge in the Nusayrat settlement in the central Gaza Strip, according to officials from the Palestinian enclave’s Civil Protection Agency.
“The school was hit by Israeli artillery shells, leaving 15 dead and 50 wounded,” said service spokesman Mahmoud Basal, adding that entire families were uprooted.
At Al Aqsa Hospital, several tents were engulfed in flames. According to Palestinian sources, at least three people were killed and more than 40 wounded in this attack at the hospital complex, where displaced people had taken refuge.
The Israeli air force has struck a Palestinian Hamas command center in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said. In particular, they said they hit a building in the Deir al-Bala area (in the central part of the Palestinian enclave) that was formerly used as a hospital. The center was “used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terrorist attacks” against Israel, the briefing, shared via the Telegram platform, underlined.
“This is yet another example of the systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure by the Hamas terrorist organization, in violation of international law,” the Israeli armed forces added, calling it a “precision strike” and asserting that they had taken measures to minimize the risk to civilians.
New phone call between US-Israeli defense ministers
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a telephone conversation on Sunday with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Galland, stressed the need for Israel to take all necessary measures to preserve the safety of members of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese army, the U.S. Pentagon said today.
The US Secretary of Defense also stressed the need for an immediate shift in Israel’s strategy from conducting military operations in Lebanon to seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis, to create conditions of security for citizens on both sides of the border.
Lloyd Austin also told Yoav Galland that immediate action must be taken to address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, US Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said.
The US Defense Secretary did not fail to express to Galland his condolences for the Israeli soldiers killed in a drone attack launched yesterday by Lebanon’s Hezbollah against a military base near Haifa.