Hezbollah drone strike kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel | Israel

Four soldiers were killed and seven others seriously injured in a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel on Sunday, according to the Israeli military. It was the militant group's deadliest attack since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah described the attack near the town of Binyamina as retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel's elite Golani Brigade and fired dozens of missiles during the attack by “squadrons” of drones to occupy Israeli air defense systems.

According to the Israeli emergency service, 61 people were injured in the attack. Thanks to Israel's advanced air defense systems, it is rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have fought almost daily firefights in the year since the war began in Gaza, and the fighting has escalated.

The attack followed news that the U.S. will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile defense battery to Israel, reportedly along with about 100 U.S. troops, deepening American involvement in the troubled region. The last time the US sent such a missile system to the Middle East was immediately after Hamas' attacks on Israel on October 7 last year. The Pentagon said a Thaad was deployed to southern Israel for exercises in 2019, its last and only known stay there.

When asked why he decided to authorize the deployment, US President Joe Biden said: “To defend Israel,” weighing in on an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran announced more on October 1 when 180 rockets were fired at Israel.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of “the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months” to support Israel and protect U.S. personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups .

U.S. officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel, and an Israeli army spokesman declined to provide a timetable for the system's arrival.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned earlier Sunday that the U.S. would put the lives of its troops “at risk by using them to operate U.S. missile systems in Israel.” “Although we have made enormous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and our interests,” Araqchi wrote on X.

It typically requires around 100 soldiers to operate a Thaad battery. It has six truck-mounted launchers with eight interceptors on each launcher and a powerful radar.

Early Monday, Hezbollah threatened Israel with further attacks if the offensive in Lebanon continued.

In a statement, the group described the Binyamina attack as a “complex” operation in which dozens of rockets were fired at Nahariya and Acre, north of Haifa, “with the aim of keeping Israel's defense systems on edge.”

At the same time, it launched “squadrons of various drones, some of which were used for the first time,” which “were able to get past Israeli air defense radars undetected” and hit the training camp at Binyamina, south of Haifa.

They “exploded in the rooms where dozens of officers and soldiers of the Israeli enemy were present,” Hezbollah's statement said.

In Lebanon, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday condemned attacks that injured several peacekeepers, his spokesman said, after a U.N. peacekeeping mission, Unifil, said two Israeli tanks destroyed a gate and forced their way into a base in the south of the country penetrated. UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said: “Unifil peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly.”

“The Secretary General reiterates that Unifil personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks on peacekeepers violate international law, including international humanitarian law. They could constitute a war crime,” he said.

In a statement released late Sunday, the Israeli military said a Merkava tank attempted to evacuate injured soldiers and accidentally backed into the Unifil post while under fire amid a smokescreen.

In a video statement addressed to Guterres on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israeli calls for the Unifil troops to be evacuated. “It is time for you to withdraw Unifil from Hezbollah strongholds and combat zones,” he said. “The IDF has repeatedly requested this and has repeatedly met with refusal, resulting in the provision of human shields to Hezbollah terrorists.”

He later said on X: “Israel will make every effort to prevent Unifil casualties and will do whatever is necessary to win the war.”

The incident in Ramyah on Sunday morning was the latest in a series of violations that Unifil, the UN force stationed in southern Lebanon since 1978, has accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Israeli tank fire killed at least 20 people in Gaza on Sunday evening, including children at a school, according to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat housed some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.

Meanwhile, explosions occurred outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah early Monday.

With Associated Press and Reuters