Rocket fire across north; Kiryat Shmona building hit, no injuries

German UNIFIL warship downs drone off Lebanon coast; IDF kills Hezbollah commander

PM says military found ‘state-of-the-art’ Russian arms in Hezbollah bases; blasts in Beqaa Valley after army called on village to evacuate; Iran-backed Iraqi group launches drone at Eilat

By ToI Staff and Agencies 17 October 2024, 1:39 pm Edit
Illustrative - The German Madgeburg F261 corvette docked at the port of Beirut on January 30, 2018. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)
Illustrative - The German Madgeburg F261 corvette docked at the port of Beirut on January 30, 2018. (JOSEPH EID / AFP)

A German warship operating as part of the United Nations’ UNIFIL mission brought down an unmanned flying object off the coast of Lebanon on Thursday, a spokesperson for the German defense ministry said.

“The corvette brought an unidentified unmanned aerial vehicle into the water in a controlled crash,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that there was no damage or injuries to the German vessel or its crew.

The corvette Ludwigshafen am Rhein is continuing its duties, the spokesperson added. There were no further details given.

The drone interception comes amid tensions between Israel and UNIFIL, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angering European allies in recent days by insisting that the international peacekeeping force leave its posts in southern Lebanon to avoid getting caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The IDF says its operations in Lebanon have targeted Hezbollah posts, but their proximity to UN peacekeepers and members of the Lebanese army has led to several accidental strikes on the latter two groups. Netanyahu has accused Hezbollah of using UNIFIL positions as cover while it attacks Israel.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu told a French newspaper in an interview published Thursday that Israeli forces had found “state-of-the-art” Russian weapons in searches of Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ministers and MKs attend a discussion and vote on the inclusion of MK Gideon Saar as a minister in the government at the Knesset, in Jerusalem on September 30, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Netanyahu highlighted to Le Figaro newspaper that under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution only the Lebanese army was allowed to have weapons south of the country’s key Litani River. That resolution tasked UNIFIL with helping ensure Israel was not threatened by Hezbollah from south Lebanon.

“However, in this area, Hezbollah has dug hundreds of tunnels and caches, where we have just found a quantity of state-of-the-art Russian weapons,” the French article quoted Netanyahu as saying.

“A new civil war in Lebanon would be a tragedy. It is certainly not our aim to provoke one. Israel does not intend to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs,” Netanyahu told Le Figaro. “Our only aim is to allow our citizens living along the Lebanon frontier to go home and feel safe.”

IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon, in an image released on October 17, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

As the IDF’s ground operation widens, the military said Thursday that it killed a Hezbollah battalion commander in the southern Lebanese Bint Jbeil district.

The military said Hussein Muhammed Auda was responsible for rocket fire on Israel originating from several towns in the district, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Additionally, airstrikes killed 45 terrorists and destroyed 150 Hezbollah sites over the past day, including weapons stores, rocket launchers and buildings used for military purposes, according to the army.

Explosions were heard in east Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley on Thursday shortly after the military’s Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee called on residents of the village of Tamnine El Tahta to evacuate.

Adraee said the military would strike strategic facilities and interests belonging to Hezbollah located in the area, and that residents nearby should evacuate for their own safety.

A map of the area to be targeted was posted on X and a short time later, explosions were heard in the area.

Meanwhile terrorists in Lebanon continued to fire rockets at northern Israel overnight and into Thursday morning, with multiple projectiles intercepted.

A barrage of some 30 rockets was fired at the Upper Galilee. Some were intercepted, while others landed in open areas.

A short time later, two more rockets were fired from Lebanon, triggering sirens across northern Israel, including towns in the Haifa area. Air defenses shot down one rocket while the other fell in an open area, the military said. No injuries were reported in the attack.

There was also rocket fire at multiple communities closer to the northern border.

In the early hours of the morning, a rocket fired by Hezbollah struck a building in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona. There were no injuries.

The recent escalation in fighting came after Israel added to its official war aims the return home of some 60,000 displaced northern residents. Fearing a Hezbollah onslaught in the north, Israel evacuated the residents shortly after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

A day later, Hezbollah-led forces began attacking border communities and military positions on a near-daily basis, with the terror group saying it was doing so in support of Gaza.

The attacks on northern Israel over the past year have killed 28 civilians, and 38 IDF soldiers have been killed in the attacks and ensuing ground operations in Lebanon.

The Lebanese government has said that Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,300 people in Lebanon over the last year, mainly in the last few weeks. According to the IDF, the toll includes at least 960 Hezbollah operatives.

Drone from Iraq

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it identified “a suspicious aerial target that crossed [into Israeli territory] from the east,” a term it has previously used to refer to attacks from Iraq.

The IDF added that it was looking into the matter, without specifying whether the suspected drone was downed.

The statement from the military came shortly after sirens were activated in two southern communities near the Jordanian border, and as air raid alerts were activated further to the west in the Negev mountains area.

The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq later claimed it launched a drone attack on Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat.

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