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The Lebanese militant group said the drone and missile attack was in response to Israeli airstrikes that killed two Hezbollah commanders.
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The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a cross-border drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday that the Israeli military said had injured 14 soldiers, six of them severely.
It was one of the most damaging attacks in recent months by Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy, in its continuing clashes with Israel. The attack came a day after Israel’s targeted killing of two Hezbollah commanders as fears continue to grow of a broader conflict between Israel and Tehran, which mounted a wide aerial attack on Israel over the weekend.
An internal Israeli army memo said an initial investigation found that Hezbollah had fired two anti-tank rockets at an Israeli Bedouin border village, Arab al-Aramshe, before dispatching an exploding drone. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the memo.
A senior Israeli defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operational issues, expressed concern about Hezbollah’s apparent ability to determine soldiers’ whereabouts and subsequently target them.
Hezbollah said its attack on the village was in response to the Israeli airstrikes a day earlier that Israel’s military said had killed the commanders. Those strikes triggered a series of retaliatory attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military bases and barracks.
Hezbollah claimed that the target on Wednesday was an Israeli military reconnaissance unit. The military said that six soldiers had been severely injured, two moderately injured and six lightly injured. It said it had responded to the attack with strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
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