Israeli army confirms 2 soldiers injured in Hezbollah rocket attack

Naim Berjawi and Said Amouri

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army confirmed that two soldiers were wounded on Thursday following an attack from Lebanon targeting the northern part of the country.

“As a result of an anti-tank projectile attack in the area of Manara, one IDF (army) soldier was moderately injured, and an additional soldier was lightly injured,” a military statement said.

“The injured soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment,” it added.

Simultaneously, Hezbollah said that it had targeted an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanese border with a guided missile.

It remains unclear whether this attack is the same as the one reported by the Israeli army.

Hezbollah stated in a statement: “Upon the arrival of a military Hummer jeep at the Quds Yiftah Yoash triangle (in northern Israel), the group targeted it with a guided missile, directly hitting and destroying the vehicle, resulting in casualties.”

In a subsequent statement, Hezbollah claimed to have conducted a second drone strike on Thursday on the Mishar base in northern Israel, aiming at the remaining intelligence centers within it.

Additionally, another drone attack targeted the Katsavya military barracks.

Earlier in the day, the group reported launching a large-scale attack involving dozens of Katyusha rockets and drones on eight military sites in northern Israel.

According to the group, these attacks were a response to the assassination of senior Hezbollah leader Taleb Sami Abdullah, also known as “Abu Taleb,” in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday evening.

The Israeli military responded by attacking Hezbollah infrastructure in the Deir Seryan area in southern Lebanon. The army also claimed to have intercepted three suspicious aerial targets in the Syrian occupied Golan Heights without causing damage or injuries.

Following the assassination of Abu Taleb, Hezbollah launched 215 rockets and drones towards northern Israel on Wednesday, marking the largest single-day barrage since the hostilities began on Oct. 8, 2023.

These attacks caused numerous fires in northern Israel, with some posing threats to strategic facilities, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Tensions have risen along Lebanon's border with Israel amid cross-border attacks between Hezbollah and Israeli forces as Tel Aviv presses ahead with its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 37,200 people since last October following a Hamas attack.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio