Four Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone attack on IDF base

The Telegraph: Four Israeli soldiers were killed and seven others were severely injured after Hezbollah struck a military base with a “swarm” of drones.

The Israeli military said early on Monday that four soldiers were killed by a Hezbollah drone strike on Sunday on a military base south of Haifa, amid the escalating conflict with the Iran-backed group in Lebanon.

“Yesterday, a UAV launched by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina,” the military said in a statement.

“Four IDF (army) soldiers were killed in the incident and an additional seven were severely injured.”

Hezbollah earlier said it had launched “a squadron of attack drones” at a military training camp in Binyamina, south of Haifa, in response to Israeli air strikes on the country.

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

Israeli media reported that the attack was launched under the cover of a rocket barrage in the Golan Heights area of Israel, near the Syrian border.

One of the UAVs was downed over the sea, according to Israel’s Channel 12, while a second evaded Israeli defences, hitting the base before any warning sirens had been sounded.

The drone struck the dining room in the army base, according to Hezbollah-affiliated media. A Hezbollah statement read: “The dining rooms of Israeli soldiers have become death traps.”

The terror group said the attack showed it could still inflict Israeli losses, despite the death of Hassan Nasrallah, its leader, in an air strike on Beirut last month.

Magen David Adom, an Israeli rescue service, said the casualty toll was mounting on Sunday as medics continued to treat the wounded, Channel 12 reported.

The Golani Brigade has participated in all of Israel’s major wars since the war of independence in 1948, but has been particularly key in the northern arena under the Northern Command.

It played a major role in the ground operations in Gaza and, since Israel’s ground incursion into southern Lebanon, the Golani, one of five infantry units in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), has been clearing the area of Hezbollah infrastructure.

The training camp targeted would have been likely to have comprised a mix of reserve and regular serving soldiers, probably preparing for deployment to Lebanon.

Some experts fear that the rise in drone attacks in particular has exposed a possible flaw or Achilles heel in the Iron Dome.

Hundreds of drones have been launched from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria in the past year, killing several people and causing severe damage to buildings, roads, and homes.

They fly at a low altitude, often under the Iron Dome’s radar, forcing the IDF to manually detect and shoot them down.

In July, an Iranian-made drone flew 2,000km from Yemen before striking an apartment in Tel Aviv, killing a civilian.

In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people including children at a school-turned-shelter, according to local hospitals, the Associated Press reported.

Sunday night’s strike also reportedly killed two women. The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the year-long war in Gaza.

Israel’s bombardment and its ground invasion of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters or civilians.