Hezbollah claims it targeted Iron Dome battery near Kfar Blum with armed UAVs
IDF says no damage or injuries in attack, incident under investigation; fighter jets strike south Lebanon buildings used by Lebanese terror group
At least two drones from Lebanon exploded near the northern community of Kfar Blum early Saturday afternoon, causing no injuries.
The launches were apparently responsible for sirens heard around 12:30 p.m. in several communities close to the border, which have been largely evacuated.
The Upper Galilee Regional Council said the impacts caused a fire but no casualties.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, no damage or injuries were caused in the attack and the incident is being investigated.
Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an Iron Dome battery near Kfar Blum with two explosive-laden drones.
Later Saturday, the IDF said it struck a building in southern Lebanon’s Kafr Kila, after a Hezbollah operative was spotted entering it. The operative was identified by the 869th Combat Intelligence Collection Unit, and a short while later a fighter jet struck the building, the military said.
כוח צה"ל מיחידה 869 זיהה באמצעות רחפן לפני זמן קצר מחבל שנכנס למבנה צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה בכפר כילא שבדרום לבנון, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו את המבנה.
בא-נקורה ועייתא א-שעב מטוסי קרב תקפו מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור. באלחיאם הותקפה עמדת תצפית של הארגון >> pic.twitter.com/y5K3SFO2W2
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 23, 2024
In Naqoura and Ayta ash-Shab, also in south Lebanon, the IDF said fighter jets struck additional buildings used by Hezbollah, as well as an observation post in Khiam.
Hezbollah also launched a number of rockets and missiles at the Mount Dov, Margaliot and Shomera areas, causing no injuries, according to the IDF.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis with rockets, drones, anti-tank missiles and other means, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there. Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy in Lebanon and Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are backed by Iran.
The IDF has regularly responded with strikes in Lebanon, while warning it will no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence on the frontier and warning of war in the north should ongoing international efforts fail to remove the terror group’s forces from the border area.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a wide-scale military campaign in Gaza. Hamas’s Iran-backed ally Hezbollah responded with strikes and attacks on the northern front.
So far, the skirmishes on the border have resulted in seven civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 10 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 244 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 42 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier and at least 30 civilians, three of whom were journalists, have been killed.
Amid the constant attacks from Lebanon, Israeli officials maintain the country will no longer accept Hezbollah’s presence along the border, in contravention of the UN resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War. They say from those positions, the terrorists could launch an attack similar to Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Jerusalem also says the situation whereby tens of thousands of northern residents have been driven from their homes for months by Hezbollah’s attacks is intolerable and unsustainable.
Agencies contributed to this report.
