At least 21 people, including 14 civilians, were wounded in an anti-tank missile attack by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group targeting Israeli troops near the Lebanon-Israel border on Sunday, according to officials. Seven Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers were wounded by a mortar near the Menara community, according to the Times of Israel.
The clashes came as skirmishes between the Iran-backed group and the Israeli military continued to intensify along the Lebanon-Israel border, threatening to escalate into another front in the Middle East's ongoing war. A civilian was seriously wounded in the missile attack.
Additionally, the missile struck a number of vehicles near the northern community of Dovev which remains close to the border. Some of the people injured in the attack were employees of the Israel Electric Corporation who had arrived to repair power lines damaged by previous attacks from Lebanon.
The wounded were transported by the Israel Defense Forces from the scene of the attack to a safer area where they could be treated by paramedics and taken to hospitals. The IDF said some 15 rockets were fired from Lebanon at northern Israel, with four projectiles being intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system. The rest landed in open areas, causing no injuries or damage.
Israel's response
Meanwhile, the IDF said it struck the Hezbollah cell behind the attack against the civilians and hit several Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon, including a weapons depot. Two more cells that launched mortars from Lebanon at areas near the communities of Menara and Yir’on were also struck, according to the military. Israel also struck several southern Lebanese towns, including Yaroun, Mays el-Jabal, and Alma al-Shaab.
The Israeli army's chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the Hezbollah attack on Israeli civilians was “very serious". He said Israel is focused on its war in Gaza but it also remains at a “very high level of preparedness in the north” and ready to take further action.
The Israeli military said in a statement that "seven IDF soldiers were lightly injured as a result of the mortar shell launches in the area of Manara in northern Israel earlier today". Israeli rescue services did not identify the location or provide information about the 10 others wounded by rocket blasts and shrapnel but said two of them were in critical condition.
The Lebanon-based militant group also announced attacks on Israeli military gatherings and barracks in border areas Birket Riche and Zareit. Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants and their allies have been clashing along the border since the Israel-Hamas war started five weeks ago with a bloody incursion into southern Israel by Hezbollah ally Hamas. While largely contained, clashes have increased in intensity as Israel conducts a ground offensive in Gaza against Hamas.
Hamas attacks on Israel
The Hamas terror group had claimed that its Lebanon branch launched a barrage of rockets at Haifa, Nahariya, and nearby towns on the Lebanon border. This comes as more than 80 people have been killed on the Lebanese side. The toll includes at least 71 Hezbollah members, eight Palestinian terrorists, a number of civilians, and a journalist.
At least 1,400 people have been killed on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack on October 7. At least 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
Retaliatory attacks by Israel have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, while roughly 2,700 people are reportedly missing.
Many countries have called for a ceasefire in the wake of the growing humanitarian crisis. Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate on Sunday, saying that fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed urgent calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war. Israel appears to be set on finishing Hamas' rule in Gaza with "full force".
(with agency inputs)
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