2 dead in drone strike in Lebanon as Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah massacre continues

Israeli UAVs reportedly struck a car and motorcycle in South Lebanon, killing three.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israel’s retaliation against Hezbollah continued Monday morning, with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen paper reporting that Israeli drones struck a car and motorcycle in southern Lebanon, killing two people and injuring three.

Later, the Al-Jedid channel reported that a third person had died in the strike, which hit between the towns of Mis al-Jabal and Shakra.

Neither report identified the victims, and as of this report, the IDF has kept mum as well.

The Lebanese terrorist organization had fired a missile that killed 12 children and youth after landing at a soccer field in the Golan Heights Druze town of Majdal Shams on Saturday.

It was the deadliest attack on Israel’s north since Hezbollah began launching rockets, anti-tank missiles and UAVs on October 8, a day after Hamas’ invasion of Israel that sparked the ongoing war.

The IDF response to the thousands of airborne attacks has usually been confined to tit-for-tat strikes on Hezbollah positions and fighters, which has killed well over 300 terrorists, including senior commanders of the organization.

Already on Saturday night, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets “deep in” Lebanese territory, as well as closer to the Israeli border. These included weapons storage sites and terrorist infrastructure in some half a dozen locations.

This time, the top political and military echelon in Israel has promised to deal the Iranian terror proxy a severe blow in response, with the security cabinet authorizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday to decide its “manner and timing.”

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi said that the country’s readiness to fight in the north was being elevated to the “next level.”

Gallant noted that he has been “shown the plans for a possible response” and that Hezbollah would “bear a heavy price for their actions.”

“The blood of Israeli children is not and will never be abandoned,” he said.

The military spokesman of the Hezbollah brigades, Jaafar al-Husseini, threatened Israel in response.

“If the entity dares to increase the intensity of operations on one side of the line, the new engagement rules will not be in its favor,” he said. “Nor will any Israeli adventure be in the interest of its evil sponsor – America.”

As Hezbollah’s master, Tehran warned Israel as well, through a statement by its foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani.

Any “reckless aggression” or “new Zionist adventure against Lebanon under the pretext of the Majdal Shams incident” would run the risk of widening the conflict in the region, and that Israel would bear the “responsibility for the unexpected consequences.”

The Majdal Shams attack was not the only one Hezbollah initiated on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Hezbollah had launched a UAV that the IDF said was aimed at the rigs pumping natural gas out of either the Karish or Leviathan offshore fields.

A Sa’ar 6 Navy vessel guarding the fields intercepted the attack drone with its ship-based Iron Dome system.

The IDF called the attack a “strategic event” and said it was investigating it fully.

The exports from natural gas fields are a very important contributor to the Israeli economy and a symbol of its self-sufficiency in this energy sphere, and are guarded around the clock by the Israeli navy.

HezbollahIAF airstrikesLebanonMajdal Shams massacre