A Hezbollah drone killed four soldiers on Sunday at one of Israel’s northern bases, according to the military.
Since Israel began stepping up its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon on September 23, the attack on a military training camp in Binyamina, close to Haifa, has been the deadliest on an Israeli base. Emergency services reported injuring over 60 people.
Authorities in Gaza, meanwhile, reported that the number of people killed by an Israeli strike on a school serving as a shelter for displaced people on Sunday had increased to 15, including entire families, and that four people had died in a separate overnight strike on a hospital.
UN peacekeepers reported that they were once again at risk when fighting broke out between Israel and Hezbollah forces in the southern region of Lebanon.
Following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the force to leave the area, they claimed that Israeli troops “forcibly” entered a UN position with two tanks.
Under fire, an Israeli tank backed into the UN post, according to the Israeli military.
Hezbollah, backed by Iran, announced late on Sunday that it had launched “a squadron of attack drones” at the Binyamina camp, located about 20 miles (30 kilometres) south of Haifa, the major city.
The attack was a response to Israeli aggression, including airstrikes on Thursday that, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, resulted in the deaths of at least 22 people in central Beirut.
Hezbollah warned Israel in a later statement 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.”
Teams from United Hatzalah, an Israeli volunteer rescue organization, assisted over 60 wounded people with injuries ranging from mild to critical.
In an effort to support Hamas members in Gaza, Hezbollah has been launching rockets and drones into Israel for more than a year.
However, since late September, the strikes have spread across the nation.
Israel’s highly developed air defences have intercepted the majority of the projectiles, resulting in few people dying from rocket strikes or falling debris.
Beyond Hezbollah’s customary strongholds in southern Beirut and the south and east of Lebanon, Israel has been targeting more and more areas with its recent strikes.
Israel’s air force struck “Hezbollah launchers, anti-tank missile posts, weapons storage facilities” while its soldiers on the ground “eliminated dozens” of fighters.
Israeli forces have reportedly “escalated their attacks” on southern Lebanon, bombarding several border villages with “successful air strikes,” according to the official National News Agency of Lebanon.
An Israeli strike on Mayfadoun, near Nabatiyeh, in southern Lebanon subsequently claimed five lives and injured one.
Hezbollah claimed that its fighters engaged in multiple skirmishes with Israeli soldiers who attempted to “infiltrate” border villages.
It had stated that it fired a salvo of rockets at a “base in southern Haifa” prior to the drone attack.
An audio recording after his death featured Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, urging fighters to “defend this holy and blessed land and this honourable people.”
On September 27, an Israeli airstrike in south Beirut claimed the life of movement leader Nasrallah, along with several other top commanders.
The Israeli military reported that by Sunday afternoon, some 115 Hezbollah-fired projectiles had entered Israeli territory.
The first such announcement since the beginning of the ground offensive came from Israel’s military on Sunday, when they said they had captured a Hezbollah fighter that had emerged from a tunnel in south Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon reported witnessing Israeli troops breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions before dawn on Sunday, marking the latest of multiple incidents the UNIFIL mission has reported since Thursday.
International condemnation has resulted from the injuries sustained by five Blue Helmets thus far.
Around 45 minutes later, UNIFIL reported that “two IDF (Israeli military) Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered it” in the Ramia area.
Later, the Israeli military claimed that a tank “backed several meters into a UNIFIL post” while it was “under fire” and trying to evacuate wounded soldiers.
After the mission turned down requests to leave its positions, Netanyahu had earlier on Sunday urged the UN to relocate peacekeepers in southern Lebanon out of harm’s way.
According to Netanyahu, the presence of peacekeepers “has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, stated on Sunday that “attacks” against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime.”
With roughly 9,500 soldiers, UNIFIL is present in southern Lebanon as a result of the long-standing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which said that the only forces allowed in south Lebanon were the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.
The army of Lebanon reported that three of its soldiers had suffered injuries after Israeli forces opened fire on military vehicles in the Marjayoun area on Sunday.
According to his office, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Tehran to back “a general de-escalation” in Lebanon and Gaza during a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
