Hezbollah targets Israeli mountain base in 'largest' air attack
- In Reports
- 10:55 AM, Jul 08, 2024
- Myind Staff
On Sunday, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement announced it had conducted its "largest" air operation, deploying explosive drones against an Israeli military intelligence base located on a mountaintop in the annexed Golan Heights.
The latest incident among escalating cross-border exchanges of fire has triggered global alarm.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed ally of Hamas, has exchanged fire almost daily with Israeli forces since the Palestinian militant group's attack on Israel on October 7, which sparked a conflict in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, Hezbollah announced "the largest operation" conducted by its aerial forces, stating that its fighters dispatched "multiple, successive squadrons of drones to target the reconnaissance centre" on Mount Hermon.
The Israeli military said an explosive drone "fell in an open area in the Mount Hermon area" but there were "no injuries".
In recent weeks, both attacks and rhetoric have escalated, spurring fears of a full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, who last went to war in 2006.
The Lebanese movement stated that the drone attack was part of its "response" to the killing of an operative in a strike on Saturday, deep in eastern Lebanon, approximately 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the border.
The Mount Hermon attack targeted intelligence systems, "destroying them and starting a major fire", Hezbollah said.
According to his office, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant visited troops on Mount Hermon earlier on Sunday.
In two additional statements, the military reported that its air defences "successfully intercepted" several "aerial targets" that had crossed from Lebanon after sirens sounded in the Golan Heights area.
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it in a move largely unrecognised by the international community.
The Israeli strike on Saturday killed "a key operative in Hezbollah's Aerial Defence Unit", the military has said.
Throughout Sunday, Hezbollah announced four more attacks on Israeli military sites across the border, using barrages of rockets and some guided missiles. Israeli authorities reported that four people were wounded.
Gallant, in a video from Mount Hermon, said that "even if there is a ceasefire" in Gaza, "we will continue fighting and doing everything necessary to bring about the desired result" in the campaign against Hezbollah.
Cross-border violence has resulted in the deaths of at least 497 people in Lebanon, primarily fighters but also including 95 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, authorities report that at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed.
Tens of thousands of residents from border areas in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel have been displaced as a result.
Image source: Reuters
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