UPDATE WITH REMARKS ON ATTACK BY ARMY SPOKESMAN
By Khaled Yousef
JERUSALEM (AA) - At least 67 Israelis were injured, including four critically, in a Hezbollah drone attack on the city of Haifa in northern Israel, according to the Israeli Army Radio on Sunday.
The daily Israel Hayom also reported that a large number of Israelis were wounded due to the drone explosion in the town of Binyamina in Haifa.
In a statement, the Lebanese Hezbollah group confirmed that it launched a swarm of attack drones on a training camp for the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, south of Haifa.
***** Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, marking the first official comment on the attack, also stated that a drone belonging to Hezbollah struck "a military base near Binyamina," adding that all those injured were transferred to hospitals, with their families notified.
***** He also said that four soldiers were killed and seven others severely injured. Their families have been informed, and their names will be released later, he added.
The Israeli Army Radio said that the army has opened an investigation into the failure to activate the sirens when the drone entered northern Israel.
***** Official Hebrew broadcasting agency IBA reported that the commander of the air force, Gen. Tomer Bar, is personally overseeing the military investigation.
According to the daily Israel Hayom, residents of Haifa and surrounding areas, including the Kiryat settlements, heard explosions without the activation of sirens.
This comes as Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.
The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala and Alperen Aktas from Istanbul