Soldier seriously injured in Hezbollah rocket attack on northern border
Military says barrages and explosive-laden drones fired at Mount Dov, Kiryat Shmona, Galilee Panhandle; drones launched from Iraq intercepted by fighter jets
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday that a soldier was seriously injured a day earlier by rocket fire from Lebanon on the Mount Dov area, as the Hezbollah terror group claimed a number of attacks on communities and outposts along the northern border.
Rocket and drone alert sirens sounded in northern communities near the border with Lebanon multiple times throughout the day.
The IDF said Tuesday evening that several projectiles had been fired at Mount Dov — which houses several military bases and no towns — and some 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Kiryat Shmona area. Earlier in the day, a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon at the Galilee Panhandle.
Some of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
Additionally, there were several drone attacks on northern Israel. According to the IDF, several explosive drones impacted the Mount Meron area while others were intercepted.
The military said troops responded to the attacks by shelling launch sites with artillery, and fighter jets struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher in Kfarhamam, infrastructure in Ayta ash-Shab, and an observation post in Khiam.
Additionally, a drone strike was carried out against a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon’s Tallouseh, the IDF said. According to the military, the operative had been identified leaving a site from which rockets were launched at the Galilee Panhandle.
Also on Tuesday, the IDF said that it struck a car in southern Lebanon’s Shaqra that was transporting several Hezbollah operatives.
On Wednesday, the military said fighter jets struck a building in southern Lebanon’s Chihine that the IDF says was used by Hezbollah to fire rockets at Israel.
Additionally, a Hezbollah weapons depot was struck in Kfarhamam, the military said. The IDF published footage of the strike, and said that secondary blasts seen in the clip indicated the presence of numerous weapons at the site.
במהלך הלילה מטוסי קרב תקפו מבנה צבאי של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחב שיחין, ממנו בוצעו שיגורים לשטח הארץ אתמול.
בנוסף, הותקף מחסן אמל״ח במרחב כפר חמאם.
במהלך התקיפה זוהו פיצוצי משנה אשר העידו על הימצאות אמצעי לחימה רבים במחסן pic.twitter.com/sCYGNAOx4U— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) July 24, 2024
Meanwhile, Education Minister Yoav Kisch told the heads of local authorities that students from northern communities evacuated because of the war would not be able to return to school in their hometowns in September and would instead continue to attend schools elsewhere in Israel.
Kisch wrote in a statement that this was due to the “security complexities” in the region, which has been subject to incessant rocket fire and drone attacks by the Hezbollah terror group from Lebanon since the beginning of the war against Hamas in Gaza on October 7.
Calling the decision not to start the school year in the affected northern communities “regrettable,” Kisch called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “act now, strongly, against the state of Lebanon.”
Of 60,000 civilians relocated from northern Israel at the outset of the war, 14,600 are children, scattered in kindergartens and schools or makeshift premises throughout the country. The evacuated residents do not yet know when they will be able to return to their homes.
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 Palestinians in Gaza amid the war against Hamas there.
The fighting in the north has resulted in 12 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 374 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
Fighter jets down drones launched from Iraq
Overnight, Israeli fighter jets downed two drones heading toward Israel from the east, the military said Wednesday morning.
The IDF has described past attacks launched from Iraq as “from the east.”
According to the military, the drone did not enter Israeli airspace, and therefore sirens did not sound in any towns.
The IDF’s statement came shortly after the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed to have launched drones at a “vital target” in Israel’s southernmost city of Eilat. It said the attack was in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed dozens of drone attacks on Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with the IDF reporting downing many of them. Many of the militia’s claims have been exaggerated, but in one case it managed to hit an Israeli Navy base in Eilat, causing damage.
Along with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Iran-backed groups in Yemen and Syria have claimed to have launched dozens of drones at Israel during the ongoing war sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror onslaught. Last week, a man was killed in a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Yemen’s Houthis.
Iran itself also carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel in April with hundreds of drones and missiles.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
