Israel military vows to destroy Hezbollah drone squad after Binyamina attack

Benjamin Netanyahu vows to hit Hezbollah ‘without mercy’, after the group’s deadliest strike on Israel since the start of the war, amid reports his government ordered the IDF to stop attacks on Beirut.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to hit Hezbollah without mercy, a day after the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s deadliest strike on Israel since the start of the war in late September.

Hezbollah’s drone attack on an Israeli base killed four soldiers on Sunday, while volunteer rescuers said another 60 people were injured.

“We will continue to mercilessly strike Hezbollah in all parts of Lebanon – including Beirut,” Mr Netanyahu said on a visit to the base near Binyamina, south of Haifa.

His remarks came as his office denied reports his government had ordered the Israeli military to stop striking Beirut, at the behest of Washington.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Golani training base targeted by a deadly Hezbollah drone strike. Picture: Kobi Gideon/GPO.

The Israeli Air Force also said it would, as a priority, aim to eliminate Hezbollah’s Unit 127, responsible for its drone production and operation. The Times of Israel reported: “The effort to kill every member of the unit will now take priority in terms of intelligence collection and air strikes”.

Hezbollah said it launched the “squadron of attack drones” in response to Israeli attacks, including one last week that Lebanon’s health ministry said killed at least 22 people in central Beirut.

Since Israel on September 23 escalated its bombing against targets in Lebanon the war has killed at least 1,315 people, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely to be higher.

Prior to Mr Netanyahu’s comments, new air strikes had already occurred against targets around Lebanon, including one in a northern Christian-majority village which killed at least 21 people on Monday, according to the health ministry.

Hezbollah said on Monday around midday that it had launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa before a further “big rocket salvo” in the early evening at the northern Israeli town of Safed.

Its fighters were also “engaged in violent clashes” in the Lebanese frontier village of Aita al-Shaab, and were fighting elsewhere as well, it said.

Meanwhile the UN’s peacekeeping chief has said peacekeepers will remain in all positions in Lebanon despite Israeli calls for them to move amid intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and five blue helmets suffering injuries.

Mr Netanyahu on Monday again called for the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to move from certain areas close to his country’s border with Lebanon, insisting it was “completely false” that Israeli forces targeted the UN force, UNIFIL.

Israel has faced severe criticism over injuries and damage sustained by the UN peacekeeping force which has been deployed in Lebanon since the first of Israel’s four major ground offensives against its neighbour in 1978.

“The decision was made that UNIFIL would currently stay in all its positions in spite of the calls that were made by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate the positions that are in the vicinity of the Blue Line,” said UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

“I want to emphasise that this decision still remains,” he said, adding that the plan was confirmed earlier Monday by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Five peacekeepers were injured in a series of incidents last week, with the latest seeing the UN force accuse Israeli troops of breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions.

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

Under Security Council Resolution 1701, only UNIFIL’s roughly 9,500 troops and Lebanon’s army should be deployed in Lebanon’s south.

“We just heard from members of the UN Security Council the unanimous expression of support towards UNIFIL. Of course, it’s very heartening,” Mr Lacroix added.

AFP