(Al Jazeera Media Network) At least 67 people have been wounded in a drone attack in northern Israel, according to Israeli emergency services and local media, as the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military camp with a “swarm” of drones.
Israeli Army Radio reported that at least four people were critically wounded in the attack on Sunday in the town of Binyamina, south of Haifa.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, no warning sirens were heard before the attack.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the strike. In a statement, the Iran-aligned group said it launched a “swarm of drones” at a Golani Brigade camp.
The Golani Brigade is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Israeli army and regarded as an elite unit.
In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it also targeted the Israeli Tsnobar logistics base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with a missile.
The Hezbollah drone strike comes on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defence system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missile attacks.
At the direction of US President Joe Biden, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement.
Sunday’s attack comes as Israel intensifies its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated a year ago when the Lebanese group began firing rockets at northern Israel the day after Israel launched its assault on Gaza. Israel has sharply escalated the fighting in recent weeks, carrying out air raids across Lebanon and sending ground troops into the south of the country.
More than 2,100 people in Lebanon have been killed since last October, the majority in the last few weeks, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.
The Hezbollah attack in Binyamina shows that attacking Lebanon carries a heavy price for Israelis, too, according to Gideon Levy, Israeli political analyst.
“Nothing less was expected. We are at the beginning of the war in Lebanon, not at the end of it. And everyone so enthusiastic about this war should know that it will carry a very heavy price,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hezbollah has said it will continue attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their “valiant and honorable resistance”, and in “defence of Lebanon and its people.”
