BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Monday claimed responsibility for a strike that Israel said wounded five soldiers in the country’s north, the latest casualties in more than seven months of cross-border clashes.
The group said it carried out “an aerial attack with a swarm of suicide drones targeting Israeli soldiers’ sleeping quarters in Beit Hillel.”
The attack succeeded in “killing and injuring Israeli commanders and soldiers … (at a) newly established site for the 403rd Reserve Artillery Battalion of the 91st Division south of Beit Hillel,” it said.
The Israeli Ziv Medical Center reported “the arrival of four injured soldiers due to a fusillade near the Yiftah settlement in northern Israel on the Lebanese border.”
The Israeli army later said that five soldiers had been injured.
Meanwhile, Israel conducted a drone strike on the Lebanese town of Chihine, with no casualties reported.
At the time of the raid, residents were fleeing the area after coordinating with UNIFIL forces operating in the region and the Lebanese Army.
The Israeli army also fired artillery and machine guns at targets on the outskirts of Mays Al-Jabal.
The resumption in hostilities came after a relatively calm Sunday and ahead of a speech by Hezbollah’s secretary-general on Monday evening.
The group also said it “targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in the Israeli site of Birkat Risha.”
Israeli media reported that missiles were launched at Pranit Barracks in Western Galilee in Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it destroyed a Merkava tank with a guided missile and caused casualties “after closely observing the movements of the enemy at the Yiftah barracks.”
It also targeted Israeli soldiers near the Al-Jardah site.
The Israeli army said a drone fired from Lebanon fell in the Zarit area but no one was hurt.
Lebanese security reports said: “Hezbollah introduced new weapons into its military operations. These included heavy missiles and a new drone with optical or thermal guidance to target the Israeli Iron Dome.”
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Ezz El-Din said that the support front that Hezbollah had opened in southern Lebanon to help the Gazans was “no less important than what is happening in the Gaza Strip.”
The group “has so far only used traditional weapons developed by brothers working in the national industry. So, these drones are a Lebanese national industry,” he said.
After discussions on a ceasefire settlement on the southern front ended, Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun met Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani in Qatar.
The Foreign Ministry quoted the prime minister as saying that Qatar would “continue to provide support to the military institution so that it can continue its essential role in preserving Lebanon’s security and stability.”
The ceasefire efforts focus on the implementation of UN Resolution 1701 through the reinforcement of the Lebanese army in the border region and the withdrawal of Hezbollah from it.
Villages and towns in southern Lebanon have been deserted for more than seven months after residents fled the Israeli shelling of their homes. Those that remain have to race to bury their lost loved ones between attacks.
Fadi Hounaikah and his family were killed in an Israeli raid as they examined the remains of the supermarket they once ran and which had been damaged in a previous strike.
A local security source said Hezbollah had advised local people attending funerals not to check on their damaged properties during processions because of the dangers involved.
Residents should instead “accompany the funeral procession and take maximum precautions to ensure their safety,” the group said.
Also, after infrastructure maintenance teams were targeted by attacks, UNIFIL mediated with the Israeli side to allow them set times to carry out essential repairs to water, electricity and telecommunications systems.
However, a technician and a paramedic were killed last week when a maintenance team for a mobile service provider was targeted by an Israeli raid, despite being accompanied by the Lebanese Army.
