A drone attack launched on Tuesday from Lebanon by Hezbollah forces injured six people in northern Israel, including one who is in critical condition, Israeli sources said.
"A number of hostile UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) were identified crossing from Lebanon," Israel's army said in a statement. One of the UAVs was intercepted, while the others exploded, injuring civilians south of Nahariya city.
Israeli police check the site of a Hezbollah explosive drone attack near the northern city of Nahariya, on August 6, 2024. /CFP
Sirens were heard in several locations in the Upper Galilee, and an eyewitness told Israel's state-owned Kan TV news that he saw at least two drones flying above a highway before one of them rapidly descended and exploded, scattering shrapnel that injured several people.
Masad Barhum, general director of the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, told reporters that five people sustained light injuries and one was in a critical condition.
Hezbollah assumed responsibility for the drones, saying in a statement that it launched an air attack "with a squadron of suicide drones that targeted the headquarters of the Golani Brigade and the headquarters of the Egoz Unit 621 in the Shraga barracks north of occupied Acre," in response to Israel's attack on southern Lebanon on Monday.
Confrontations between Hezbollah and the Israeli army escalated following Israel's attack on Dahieh in Beirut's southern suburbs, killing Hezbollah senior military commander Fouad Shokor and seven civilians. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened a definite and painful response to the Israeli raid at the appropriate time and place.
Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.