BEIRUT: The Israeli military said that one of its missile ships had intercepted a drone launched from Lebanese territory toward Israel’s Karish gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean on Saturday.
Israel’s Army Radio said: “The drone, which came from Lebanon and was downed by a military ship in cooperation with the Israeli Air Force, was heading toward the Israeli Karish gas field,” adding that it was “likely” an intelligence drone, “but it remains unclear whether it was armed or conducting reconnaissance.”
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the ship — in cooperation with the Air Force — intercepted a drone that was flying “from Lebanon over Israel’s economic waters.”
BACKGROUND
Israeli forces have traded near-daily fire with Hezbollah since the Palestinian group’s Oct, 7 attack on southern Israel started the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for the drone, but its military media has previously published footage from 2022 titled “In the Crossfire,” which documents gas extraction coordinates on Israel’s coast.
At the time, there was a maritime border demarcation crisis between Lebanon and Israel over the issue of gas extraction from disputed areas.
Also on Saturday, Israel targeted the outskirts of Jebbayn in the western sector and the outskirts of Mays Al-Jabal with artillery, and Israeli military aircraft struck the border village of Kfarkila, destroying two houses and injuring their residents.
Israel’s Channel 12 said that four missiles were fired toward Kiryat Shmona, and one missile was launched toward Arab Al-Aramsheh in western Galilee from Lebanon, with no casualties reported.
Israeli military aircraft broke the sound barrier in two waves over Chouf, Iklim Al-Kharoub, Saida, Jezzine and its surroundings, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah said it targeted “espionage equipment in the Maskaf Am site” and “Al-Jardah point with missile weapons” on Saturday, and that it had launched “an aerial attack and targeted with a squadron of assault drones the positions and bases of officers and soldiers from an armored force that was recently stationed north of the Yiftah Barracks, hitting their tents and causing injuries among them, in response to the Israeli aggression on the town of Markaba on Friday.” The Markaba attack resulted in the death of two Hezbollah fighters.
Sirens sounded in Yiftah in the Galilee panhandle, while Israeli media reported that “two explosive-laden drones exploded in the Ramot Naftali in Upper Galilee.”
Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, speaking at the funeral of a Hezbollah member, accused the US of being “a full partner in all the crimes committed against Lebanon and the Palestinians on various levels.”
Fayyad said: “The hand that clapped yesterday in US Congress for (PM Benjamin) Netanyahu is a partner in every drop of blood that fell in Gaza or southern Lebanon and is no different from the hand that drops tons of explosives on women and children.”
Fayyad stressed that Hezbollah “will continue to confront Israel until the aggression on Gaza (ends) and (Gaza) achieves its goals and wins, regardless of how long the war may last and how great the sacrifices may be.”
He continued: “Israel today is at its weakest point in history, while our resistance is at its strongest.”
