IDF officer, soldier wounded in Hezbollah drone attack

Several fires broke out in the Upper Galilee due to impacts.

By Joshua Marks, JNS

An Israel Defense Forces officer and a soldier were moderately wounded when a Hezbollah drone launched from Lebanon scored a direct hit near Ayelet HaShahar in the Hula Valley overnight Sunday.

They were evacuated to hospital and their families were informed.

Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy said it had launched “a swarm of drones” at the kibbutz, according to the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV news network, which is aligned with Hezbollah.

The attack triggered sirens in the area, and the Upper Galilee Regional Council reported several interceptions. Fires broke out in several open areas due to impacts.

Alarms were also heard in the Western Galilee in several towns near Nahariya on Monday morning, with the IDF saying that a suspicious aerial target was intercepted.

Sirens were sounded due to concerns of falling shrapnel, according to the military.

Additionally, the IDF said that an armed drone from Lebanon hit in the area of Malkia. No injuries were reported.

Overnight Sunday, the Israeli Air Force struck a weapons storage facility and multiple Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Kfarkela in Southern Lebanon, the military said.

Furthermore, IDF artillery fired toward the areas of Chebaa and Rachaya Al Foukhar in Southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced late Sunday night that two members of the terrorist organization had been killed by Israeli strikes, naming them as Muhammad Hassan Farhat and Ali Mustafa Amro.

Hezbollah has attacked northern Israel nearly every day since joining the war in support of Gaza-based Hamas on Oct. 8, killing more than 20 people and causing widespread damage. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.

The terror group has vowed revenge for last week’s targeted killing by Israel of senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.

Shukr was responsible for a rocket attack that killed 12 children in Majhal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights, as well as the 1983 bombing that killed more than 300 U.S. and French troops in Beirut.

Israel is preparing the home front for an intensification of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah in response to Shukr’s killing, and also for Iran’s retaliation for the assassination of Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, which Jerusalem has not taken responsibility for.