Israeli Navy sailor killed, two hurt by interceptor missile amid Hezbollah attack
Air Force investigating possibility interceptor locked onto patrol boat instead of drone launched from Lebanon; Gallant says 50-60% of planned rockets were thwarted by IDF
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An Israeli soldier aboard a Navy vessel was killed and two others were hurt amid a major Hezbollah rocket and drone attack on northern Israel on Sunday morning, the military announced.
Meanwhile Defense Minister Yoav Gallant hailed the efficacy of Israel’s preemptive strikes in Lebanon, and IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari denied Hezbollah’s claims that it had hit any military bases in the north or center.
The slain sailor was named as Petty Officer First Class David Moshe Ben Shitrit, 21, of the Navy’s 914th Patrol Squadron, from the West Bank settlement of Geva Binyamin.
The other two soldiers were listed in moderate and light condition.
According to an initial probe carried out by the Israeli Air Force with the Haifa Naval Base, the sailors on a Dvora-class patrol boat off the coast of northern Israel were hit by shrapnel from an Iron Dome air defense system interceptor missile, as at least two Hezbollah drones flew over the area.
The military was investigating the possibility that the interceptor missile was tracking one of the Hezbollah drones and then, due to an unknown error, locked on to the patrol boat instead of the drone, and exploded directly above the vessel.
If the interceptor had indeed swapped targets, the Israeli Air Force said that it would be a rare malfunction, one that it had not encountered before.
Another possibility, although considered less likely by the military, is that the interceptor missile managed to intercept one of the drones just above the boat, but the shrapnel then struck the vessel and wounded the sailors.
According to the initial probe, the interceptor missile did not directly strike the patrol boat, otherwise, the damage to it would have been far more extensive.
Footage from the incident showed an Iron Dome interceptor missile flying toward the sea, before exploding just above the vessel. Parts of the interceptor missile were found inside the boat after the blast.
Ben Shitrit was evacuated in critical condition via another vessel and taken to a hospital in Nahariya, where he was later declared dead.
The Dvora-class boat was also towed to the shore to be repaired, and it was expected to return to service within a day.
The 914th Squadron’s patrol boats have been deployed to the northern border area to foil possible infiltration attempts from Lebanon, as well as identify threats such as drones flying over the sea.
Gallant said Sunday that Hezbollah was “thrown off balance” and its attempted attack on Israel failed.
Speaking to officers at the IDF Operation Directorate’s command room, Gallant said Israel’s ability to “remove the threat” of Hezbollah’s attack minutes before it was supposed to be carried out was “very, very successful.”
“The enemy planned to launch many hundreds of rockets towards the northern communities. The preemptive action meant that over fifty percent, maybe two-thirds of them were not launched,” Gallant said. “We hit the enemy before it launched [the attack] and threw it off balance.”
Hezbollah managed to launch 210 rockets and some 20 drones from Lebanon at northern and central Israel in the early hours of Sunday, according to the IDF. Some of the projectiles were intercepted, while others impacted, causing damage to homes and lightly injuring at least one person.
The IDF released footage on Sunday evening showing the airstrikes in southern Lebanon, a drone being intercepted by an attack helicopter and an F-35 fighter jet being refueled over Lebanon.
Hagari said in a Sunday evening press conference that at least six Hezbollah operatives were killed in the airstrikes.
According to Hagari, around 90% of the targets struck Sunday morning were short-range rocket launchers that would have been used in attacks on northern Israel.
“Contrary to Hezbollah’s claims, there were no impacts in IDF bases, not in the north and not in the center [of the country],” Hagari said.
Hezbollah said the attack was part of its response to the killing of its military leader Fuad Shukr by Israel in Beirut last month.
Earlier Sunday, more than 100 Israeli fighter jets simultaneously struck hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launchers — each with dozens of launcher barrels — and drones across southern Lebanon, in what the military said was a preemptive operation against weaponry that was about to be used in a major attack on central and northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified overnight preparations in Hezbollah’s rocket array for a major and immediate attack on Israel. Fighter jets began to “remove the threat” shortly before 5 a.m.
Sirens sounded across northern Israel early Sunday morning, including in the coastal city of Acre, Katzrin in the Golan Heights, as well as numerous communities in the Galilee, including the city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, as Hezbollah launched its attack shortly afterward.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war against Hamas there.
So far, the skirmishes on the northern border have resulted in 26 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 20 IDF soldiers and reservists — including in Sunday’s attack.
Hezbollah has named 430 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon, but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 73 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
