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IAF jets destroy drone launched from Syria

Approximately 10 cross-border rocket launches from Lebanon were also identified on Monday night.

By JNS

An IDF fighter jet intercepted an aerial target that apparently crossed from Syria into Israel’s Golan region on Tuesday morning, Hebrew media reported.

That incident followed a similar one on Monday night, when the IDF Aerial Defense Array intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” that crossed into Israeli airspace from Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.

Approximately 10 cross-border rocket launches from Lebanon were also identified on Monday night. A number of the rockets were intercepted, but one hit a utility pole, knocking out power to several towns in Israel’s north.

IAF jets struck several Hezbollah military compounds in southern Lebanon in response, the IDF said.

On Monday, one person was killed and nine were wounded, two seriously, when an anti-tank missile launched from Lebanon struck a plantation in Margaliot, a moshav in the Galilee panhandle, at around 11 a.m.

The casualty has been identified as Nibin Maxwell, a 31-year-old foreign worker from Kerala, India, according to The Hindu.

The wounded, workers from India and Thailand in their 30s, were evacuated by helicopter to various hospitals. All suffered shrapnel wounds, Magen David Adom reported.

Following that attack, IDF jets hit a series of Hezbollah targets in the areas of Bint Jbeil, Sultaniyeh and Seddiqine. Among the targets struck were Hezbollah military structures and a military command and control center used by the terrorist organization, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

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Monday’s deadly attack took place only hours before U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut as part of a U.S.-led diplomatic effort to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

In Beirut, Hochstein met with Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s Parliament speaker, and separately with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun.

“The United States remains committed to advancing lasting security solutions achieved through diplomatic process,” Hochstein told reporters after he met Berri, AP reported.

“I’m mindful that my arrival comes on the heels of a tense few weeks on both sides of the border,” Hochstein said. “An escalation will certainly not help Lebanon rebuild and advance forward at this critical time in Lebanon’s history.”

Israel has threatened a full-scale invasion to push Hezbollah north of the Litani river if a diplomatic solution is not found. So far, U.S. efforts to calm tensions have not been successful.

Fourteen northern Israeli communities have been evacuated due to Hezbollah’s attacks, displacing some 80,000 Israelis. Hezbollah has been launching near daily attacks on Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.