Katz vows to ‘settle scores’ as Israel bombs Hezbollah after drone attack wounds 3 soldiers

Israeli defense chief vows retaliations on Hamas and Hezbollah after tank bombed in Gaza, IDF soldiers wounded in Lebanon.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Sunday that Israel would retaliate against attacks on its forces “on any front,” as reports emerged of another wave of strikes in southern Lebanon following a Hezbollah explosive-drone attack that seriously wounded three IDF soldiers.

“No account on any front will remain unsettled,” Katz wrote on X. “We will forcefully defend our soldiers and citizens.”

The statement came after Lebanese and Israeli media reported heavy Israeli strikes overnight Sunday around the strategic Ali Taher Ridge, near Nabatieh in southern Lebanon.

Israeli residents in the Upper Galilee had been warned hours earlier that they could hear explosions overnight because of military activity across the border.

The IDF had not formally confirmed the latest reported overnight strikes as of Sunday morning.

The escalation began early Saturday when Hezbollah launched an explosive-laden drone at Israeli troops operating around the Ali Taher Ridge, according to the IDF.

The drone exploded near soldiers from the Yahalom special combat engineering unit at around 2:30 a.m., seriously wounding an officer and two soldiers, the military said.

All three were evacuated for hospital treatment.

Israel subsequently carried out a series of strikes against Hezbollah positions and commanders across southern Lebanon.

“The IDF responded by striking the Hezbollah terror headquarters which ordered the attack,” the Prime Minister’s Office said Saturday.

Lebanese authorities said at least 11 people were killed in Saturday’s Israeli strikes, making them among the deadliest attacks since the current truce between Israel and Hezbollah took effect in June.

Seven people were reported killed in Ansar and four in Deir al-Zahrani, while 19 others were wounded.

Israel said the Ansar strike targeted a central Hezbollah command center and killed Ali Samir Al-Haj Hassan, a battalion commander in the group’s elite Radwan Force, along with other Hezbollah terrorists involved in attacks against Israeli troops.

The IDF acknowledged that Hassan’s family was present at the site and was harmed in the strike, but said the family was not deliberately targeted. Israel accused the Hezbollah commander of operating from a military facility while surrounded by relatives.

The military announced Sunday morning that another senior Hezbollah figure had also been killed in Saturday’s strikes.

The IDF identified him as Ali Muhammad Fakhr al-Din, also known as Abu Hassan Alaa, describing him as a senior commander in Hezbollah’s Badr regional division, which is responsible for territory north of the Litani River.

According to the military, Alaa had helped advance numerous attacks against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, including explosive-drone operations, and had commanded several Hezbollah combat sectors in recent years.

The reported strikes early Sunday again focused heavily on the Ali Taher Ridge, a strategically important elevated area overlooking Nabatieh and surrounding routes.

Israel says Hezbollah maintains extensive underground infrastructure in the ridge area, which has repeatedly become a flashpoint since the June ceasefire.

The Hezbollah drone attack was not the first recent incident in the area.

On July 29, an explosive drone struck an unmanned Israeli engineering vehicle operating at Ali Taher without causing casualties.

The IDF at the time called that attack a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire.

Hezbollah warned after the Israeli strikes that the attacks would be “met with what they deserve,” raising concerns that the latest exchange could further undermine the fragile ceasefire.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam sharply criticized the strikes and rejected Israel’s description of the Ansar site.

“The seven martyrs of the Israeli airstrike on the town of Ansar are not military infrastructure,” Salam said.

The renewed violence comes at a sensitive moment in US-backed efforts to turn the June ceasefire into a broader security agreement.

Under the framework announced by Israel and Lebanon on June 26, Israeli forces are to withdraw progressively from southern Lebanon as Hezbollah is disarmed and the Lebanese army assumes control of the territory.

Hezbollah has rejected disarmament while Israeli forces remain in Lebanon and was not a party to the agreement.

Katz said last week that Israel would not withdraw from the security zone until Hezbollah was disarmed and its threat throughout Lebanon removed. He also instructed the IDF to prepare for an “extended presence” in southern Lebanon if necessary.

A US State Department official subsequently said a permanent Israeli military presence would be inconsistent with the commitments contained in the framework.

Katz’s reference Sunday to settling accounts “on any front” also came as tensions rose again in Gaza.

The IDF said a Hamas explosive device struck an Israeli tank near the Yellow Line in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, although no soldiers were hurt.

In a separate incident, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military said had crossed the line and attempted to sabotage IDF weapons.

The army described both incidents as ceasefire violations that it viewed “gravely.”