Israel-Hezbollah conflict: 4 Israeli soldiers killed, dozens wounded in drone strike on base

The lebanese group warned Israel of more powerful attacks 'if it decides to continue its aggression'

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Photo: AFP file

By AFP

Published: Mon 14 Oct 2024, 9:08 AM

Israel's military said a Hezbollah drone killed four soldiers at one of its northern bases on Sunday, as it expanded its bombardments of Lebanon and troops battled the group's fighters across the border.

The attack on a military training camp in Binyamina, near Haifa, was the deadliest such assault on an Israeli base since September 23, when Israel increased its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Emergency services reported more than 60 wounded.

Hezbollah said late on Sunday that it launched "a squadron of attack drones" at the Binyamina camp, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the major city of Haifa.

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The strike was in response to Israeli attacks, including air strikes on Thursday that Lebanon's health ministry said killed at least 22 people in central Beirut.

In a later statement, Hezbollah warned Israel that "what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression against our noble and dear people".

Hezbollah said its forces clashed several times with Israeli troops who tried to "infiltrate" villages along the border.

Before the drone strike it had said it launched a salvo of rockets at a "base in southern Haifa".

Israel's military said about 115 projectiles fired by Hezbollah had crossed into Israeli territory by Sunday afternoon.

A Hezbollah fighter was captured emerging from a tunnel in south Lebanon on Sunday, Israel's military said, the first such announcement since the start of the ground offensive.

Meanwhile, UN peacekeepers accused Israeli troops of breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions before dawn on Sunday in south Lebanon, the latest of several incidents the UNIFIL mission has reported since Thursday.

Five Blue Helmets have so far been injured, provoking international condemnation.

"Two IDF (Israeli military) Merkava tanks destroyed the position's main gate and forcibly entered the position" in the Ramia area, before leaving 45 minutes later, UNIFIL said.

The Israeli military later said a tank "backed several meters into a UNIFIL post" while "under fire" and attempting to evacuate injured soldiers.

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday said "attacks" against peacekeepers "may constitute a war crime".

UNIFIL, with about 9,500 troops, is in southern Lebanon under the longstanding UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which stipulated that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should be deployed in south Lebanon.

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AFP

Published: Mon 14 Oct 2024, 9:08 AM

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