Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said on Sunday it had launched its “largest” air operation, sending explosive drones at an Israeli military intelligence base on a hilltop in the Golan Heights.
This is the latest incident in a growing spate of cross-border firing that has sparked concern globally.
There has been almost daily exchange of fire between the Iran-backed Hamas ally Hezbollah and Israeli forces since the Palestinian group launched a war in the Gaza Strip by attacking Israel on October 7.
Announcing the “largest operation” ever carried out by its air forces, Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters “sent several squadrons of drones to target the reconnaissance center” on Mount Hermon.
The Israeli military said an explosive drone “fell in an open area in the Mount Hermon region” but there were “no casualties”.
The attacks have escalated in recent weeks, as has the rhetoric, raising fears of a bigger conflict between Israel and Hezbollah than the one that last erupted into war in 2006.
The Lebanese Movement said the drone strike was part of a response to the killing of a terrorist in an attack in eastern Lebanon on Saturday, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the border.
Hezbollah said the Mount Hermon attack targeted intelligence systems, “destroying them and causing a huge fire”.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant met with troops on Mount Hermon on Sunday, his office said.
In two additional statements, the army said its air defense forces “successfully intercepted” several “aerial targets” that came from Lebanon after sirens were sounded in the Golan Heights region.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it, an annexation not recognised by the international community.
The army said the Israeli attack on Saturday “killed a key operative of Hezbollah’s air defense unit”.
On Sunday, Hezbollah launched four more attacks with rockets and some guided missiles against Israeli military positions across the border. Israeli officials reported four people were injured.
In a video released from Mount Hermon, Galant said that “even if there is a ceasefire” in Gaza “we will continue the fight and do everything possible to achieve the desired result in the campaign against Hezbollah.”
Cross-border violence has killed at least 497 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also 95 civilians, according to AFP.
According to officials, at least 16 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on the Israeli side.
Thousands of residents have been displaced from border areas in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
