‘Swarm of drones’: 67 injured, four killed in Hezbollah drone strike on Israel

Over 60 people have been injured after Hezbollah launched a ‘swarm of drones’ on Israel.

An army training camp deep into central Israel has been hit in a surprise drone attack by Hezbollah, with four people killed and over 60 injured.

The number of people injured is one of the largest in Israel since the Israel-Hezbollah war escalated in late September.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Lebanon report 51 people were killed and 174 injured in Israeli air strikes across the country on Saturday.

Read on for the latest updates from the conflict in the Middle East.

Israel hit by ‘swarm of drones’

Four people have been killed after Hezbollah launched a “swarm of drones” on a Golani Brigade military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in Israel.

The Lebanese militant group said that the strike was carried out “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honourable resistance, and in defence of Lebanon and its people”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said four people have been killed and seven others were severely injuried.

“All the injured individuals have been evacuated to hospitals and their families have been notified,” said the IDF,

Hezbollah said it launched a “swarm of drones” on the training camp.

Rescue service United Hatzalah said it “provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries – critical, serious, moderate and mild”.

“Helicopters and ambulances evacuated all the wounded,” it said.

Israeli media is reporting 67 people have been injured in the attack, with four critically wounded.

Emergency service provider Magen David Adom (MDA) said the attack was a “mass casualty event” which was caused by a “very serious” drone strike.

“When we arrived, we saw a very serious scene of a UAV hit,” Rafi Sheva, a senior official with MDA, said.

“There were many wounded, wounded by the blast and wounded by shrapnel, who were injured in all parts of their bodies,” he added.

“This is a major incident in terms of casualties.”

Israeli security forces secure the area at the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina. Picture: Oren ZIV/AFP

Emergency services personnel attend the scene of the drone strike. Picture: Amir Levy/Getty

The incident comes two days after air raid sirens sounded in central Israel after two aerial drones entered the country from Lebanon, with at least one building damaged north of Tel Aviv during the incident.

Hezbollah has been regularly firing rockets and drones across the border into Israel for over a year, but has reached further since late September when fighting escalated.

Israel’s sophisticated air defences, including the Iron Dome system, has intercepted most of the projectiles, with few casualties caused by strikes or falling debris.

Gaza rescuers say Israeli drone strike kills five children

In Gaza, the civil defence agency said on Sunday five children had been killed by an Israeli drone strike in the Al-Shati refugee camp in the latest deadly air raid involving minors.

“Our teams have recovered the bodies of five martyrs, all children, after an Israeli drone targeted a group of children playing in … Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence.

“The bodies were transported to Al-Shifa Hospital, located in the western part of the city.”

According to Gaza’s health ministry, 42,227 people have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past year, a majority of them women and children.

The United Nations acknowledges the figures to be reliable.

Hamas triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza with the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. It resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Attack on peackeepers could be ‘war cirme’

As combat rages between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, United Nations peacekeepers said they have again been caught in the firing line.
Peacekeepers accused Israeli troops of breaking through a gate and entering one of their positions before dawn Sunday in south Lebanon.

It is the latest of several incidents the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission has reported since Thursday, leaving five Blue Helmets injured.

“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.

Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese Military Police, in Marjayoun in south Lebanon. Picutre: AFP

Netanyahu had called on the UN earlier Sunday to remove peacekeepers in southern Lebanon out of harm’s way, after the mission rejected requests to abandon its positions.

He said the peacekeepers’ presence had “the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields”.

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.

– With AFP

Originally published as ‘Swarm of drones’: 67 injured, four killed in Hezbollah drone strike on Israel