The Israeli army said a Hezbollah drone killed four soldiers at one of its northern bases
BEIRUT: As Israel’s military increased its shelling of Lebanon as its forces fought terrorists across the border, it reported on Sunday, October 13, that a Hezbollah drone had killed four soldiers at one of its northern sites.
Since Israel began stepping up its operations on Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 23, the attack on a military training center in Binyamina, close to Haifa, is the bloodiest such assault on an Israeli site. More than 60 injuries were recorded by emergency services.
Meanwhile, Gazan authorities said that 15 individuals, including whole families, had died as a result of an Israeli hit on a school serving as a refuge for displaced Palestinians on Sunday.
Additionally, UN troops said they are once again in the firing line as combat broke out between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in the southern region of Lebanon.
They alleged that when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the force to leave the area, Israeli forces “forcibly” invaded a UN position with two tanks.
The Israeli military claimed that while under fire, a tank had backed into the UN station.
MORE HEZBOLLAH PROMISES
Iran-supported Late on Sunday, Hezbollah said that it had launched “a squadron of attack drones” against the Binyamina camp, which is located around 30 kilometers south of Haifa, the capital.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, at least 22 people were killed in airstrikes on Thursday in downtown Beirut, which were carried out in retaliation for Israeli raids.
Hezbollah cautioned Israel that “what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our noble and dear people” in a subsequent statement.
United Hatzalah, an Israeli volunteer rescue organization, said that its teams in Binyamina helped “over 60 wounded people” with minor to serious wounds.
For almost a year, Hezbollah has been launching missiles and drones into Israel in order to help Hamas fighters in Gaza.
But since late September, the strikes have expanded throughout the nation.
The majority of the rockets have been intercepted by Israel’s highly developed air defenses, resulting in few deaths from explosions or falling debris.
WARRIOR THIS “BLESSED LAND”
Israel has been targeting locations outside of Hezbollah’s customary strongholds in southern Beirut and the east and south of Lebanon with its attacks in recent times.
Israel said that while its forces on the ground “eliminated dozens” of fighters, its air force struck “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities,” and other targets.
Israeli troops have reportedly “stepped up their attacks” on southern Lebanon, according to the official National News Agency (NNA) of Lebanon, with “successful air strikes” hitting many border communities.
Later, it was reported that five people had died and one injured in an Israeli attack on Mayfadoun, near Nabatiyeh, in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said that Israeli soldiers who attempted to “infiltrate” border areas were met with several skirmishes by its fighters.
It had claimed to have fired a rocket salvo at a “base in southern Haifa” before to the drone attack.
A tape of the organization’s late leader Hassan Nasrallah urging militants to “defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable people” was subsequently played by the group.
On September 27, an Israeli airstrike in south Beirut killed Nasrallah and many other key leaders of the organization.
By Sunday afternoon, the Israeli military reported that around 115 rockets launched by Hezbollah had entered Israeli territory.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had detained a Hezbollah fighter that had emerged from a tunnel in south Lebanon. This is the first revelation of this kind made since the ground war began.
“SHOCKING VIOLATIONS”
In the most recent of many instances the UNIFIL mission has recorded since Thursday, UN forces in south Lebanon claimed to have seen Israeli troops bursting through a gate and entering one of their posts before daybreak on Sunday.
International outcry has been sparked by the five injuries suffered by Blue Helmets so far.
In the Ramia sector, UNIFIL reported that “two IDF (Israeli military) Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position” before departing forty-five minutes later.
A tank “backed several meters into a UNIFIL post” while “under fire” and trying to evacuate wounded personnel, according to subsequent statements from the Israeli military.
Netanyahu had earlier on Sunday demanded that the UN remove personnel from danger in southern Lebanon after the mission turned down demands to leave its positions.
According to Netanyahu, “the presence of the peacekeepers had the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields”.
According to UN head Antonio Guterres, “attacks” on troops “may constitute a war crime” as of Sunday.
According to the long-standing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stated that only the Lebanese army and UN soldiers should be stationed in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, with around 9,500 men, is in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army said that three troops were injured on Sunday when Israeli forces opened fire on military vehicles in the Marjayoun region.
In a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iran to back “a general de-escalation” in Gaza and Lebanon, according to his office.
US ISSUING ADDITIONAL AIR DEFENSES
According to Gaza’s civil defense service, Israeli bombardment targeted a school that was converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Sunday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and several injuries.
According to Mahmud Bassal, an agency spokesperson, “the school was bombarded with a large volley of Israeli artillery, resulting in an initial death toll of 15 martyrs, including children, women, and entire families, and 50 wounded.”
The Israeli military said that it was “investigating the reports.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, said late on Sunday that two hospitals in northern Gaza had been successfully restocked by a WHO-Red Cross effort.
“WHO and partners finally managed to reach Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals yesterday after 9 attempts this past week,” he said in a post on X.
According to an AFP count of official Israeli estimates, Hamas launched the worst strike on Israel on October 7, 2023, setting off the Gaza war. The attack claimed 1,206 lives, the majority of them civilians.
This figure includes hostages who were slain while in custody.
Since Israel started its military assault in Gaza, more than 42,000 people—mostly civilians—have died there, according to the health ministry under Hamas control. These numbers are regarded as trustworthy by the UN.
An AFP count of official numbers shows that since September 23, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have claimed the lives of over 1,300 civilians, including as of Saturday.
That number surpasses the total Lebanese casualties from the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel conflict, which resulted in 1,200 deaths in Israel, the majority of them civilians.
The Pentagon said that it will send a US military team and a high-altitude anti-missile system to Israel in order to assist the partner in defending against a possible Iranian strike.
