Lebanese militant claimed the attack on the village of Arab al-Aramashe was in return to Israeli airstrikes a day earlier. Credit.Avi Ohayon/Reuters
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group has claimed to be responsible for a cross-border drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday that the Israeli military reported to have injured 14 soldiers with six of them in serious condition.
The attack is termed as one of the most damaging in recent months by Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful regional proxy, in its continuing clashes with Israel.
The attack was launched a day after Israel’s targeted killing of two Hezbollah commanders as fears continue to grow of a broader conflict between Israel and Tehran, which mounted a wide aerial attack on Israel over the weekend.
According to an internal Israeli army memo, an initial investigation found that Hezbollah had fired two anti-tank rockets at an Israeli Bedouin border village, Arab al-Aramshe, before dispatching an exploding drone. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the memo.
A senior Israeli defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operational issues, expressed concern about Hezbollah’s apparent ability to determine soldiers’ whereabouts and subsequently target them.
Hezbollah said its attack on the village was in response to the Israeli airstrikes a day earlier that Israel’s military said had killed the commanders. Those strikes triggered a series of retaliatory attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military bases and barracks.
Hezbollah claimed that the target on Wednesday was an Israeli military reconnaissance unit. The military said that six soldiers had been severely injured, two moderately injured and six lightly injured. It said it had responded to the attack with strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Later on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike deep inside Lebanon in the Bekaa Valley, a bastion of support for Hezbollah that straddles the Syrian border. The Israeli military said its fighter jets had hit “significant” Hezbollah infrastructure.
For more than six months, Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a tense cross-border conflict set off by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that was led by Hamas, another of Iran’s proxy groups. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border, and in recent months Israeli strikes on Lebanon have begun to creep deeper into the country’s interior.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said that aircraft had eliminated Ismail Yusaf Baz, who it claimed was the commander of Hezbollah’s coastal sector, and Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Shechory, who it said was a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan unit. Mr. Baz “served as a senior and veteran official in several positions of Hezbollah’s military wing,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
The funeral for the two men took place on Wednesday in southern Lebanon, with their coffins — draped in Hezbollah’s yellow and green flag — carried through the streets by jostling crowds.
Before the targeted strikes on Tuesday, Hezbollah claimed to have also used explosive drones to target Iron Dome platforms in Beit Hillel, a border town in northern Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome system is one of the country’s key missile defence systems and proved instrumental in shielding it from Iran’s drone and missile attack over the weekend.
Nascent U.S.-led diplomatic efforts remain underway to end the fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border. But Hezbollah has consistently made clear that it will not enter into any diplomatic talks until Israel ends its war on Gaza.
Source: NYT
黎巴嫩武裝份子真主黨聲稱對以色列北部邊境村莊14名以色列士兵受傷的攻擊負責
黎巴嫩武裝組織真主黨聲稱對週三在以色列北部發生的跨境無人機和飛彈襲擊負責，以色列軍方報告稱，造成 14 名士兵受傷，其中 6 人傷勢嚴重。
這次襲擊被伊朗最強大的地區代理人真主黨稱為近幾個月來在與以色列持續衝突中最具破壞性的襲擊之一。
這次襲擊是在以色列有針對性地殺害兩名真主黨指揮官的第二天發起的，因為人們越來越擔心以色列和德黑蘭之間發生更廣泛的衝突，德黑蘭週末對以色列發動了大規模的空襲。
根據以色列軍隊內部備忘錄，初步調查發現真主黨向以色列貝都因邊境村莊阿拉伯阿拉姆謝發射了兩枚反坦克火箭，然後發射了一架爆炸的無人機。 以色列軍方發言人拒絕對備忘錄發表評論。
一位不願透露姓名的以色列高級國防官員對真主黨明顯有能力確定士兵下落並隨後將其作為目標的能力表示擔憂。
真主黨表示，對村莊的攻擊是對一天前以色列空襲的回應，以色列軍方稱空襲殺死了指揮官。 這些攻擊引發了真主黨對以色列軍事基地和軍營的一系列報復性攻擊。
真主黨聲稱週三的目標是以色列軍事偵察部隊。 軍方表示，六名士兵重傷，兩名中傷，六名輕傷。 該公司表示，已對黎巴嫩南部的真主黨目標進行了襲擊，以應對此次襲擊。
週三晚些時候，黎巴嫩官方媒體報道稱，以色列對黎巴嫩境內貝卡谷地發動攻擊，貝卡谷地是橫跨敘利亞邊境的真主黨的支持堡壘。 以色列軍方表示，其戰鬥機襲擊了真主黨「重要」基礎設施。
六個多月來，真主黨和以色列一直陷入緊張的跨境衝突，這場衝突是由伊朗另一個傀儡組織哈馬斯領導的 10 月 7 日對以色列的襲擊引發的。 戰鬥已導致邊境兩側數萬名平民流離失所，近幾個月來，以色列對黎巴嫩的攻擊已開始深入該國內陸地區。
週二，以色列軍方表示，飛機消滅了伊斯梅爾·尤薩夫·巴茲（Ismail Yusaf Baz）和穆罕默德·侯賽因·穆斯塔法·謝喬裡（Muhammad Hussein Mustafa Shechory），據稱他是真主黨沿海地區的指揮官，據稱他是真主黨精銳拉德萬部隊的指揮官。 以色列軍方在聲明中表示，巴茲先生「曾在真主黨軍事部門擔任過多個職位」。
兩名男子的葬禮於週三在黎巴嫩南部舉行，他們的棺材上覆蓋著真主黨的黃綠旗幟，由擁擠的人群抬著穿過街道。
在周二的定點襲擊之前，真主黨聲稱還使用爆炸性無人機襲擊了以色列北部邊境城鎮拜特希勒爾的鐵穹平台。 以色列的鐵穹系統是該國關鍵的飛彈防禦系統之一，事實證明，它在周末抵禦伊朗無人機和飛彈襲擊方面發揮了重要作用。
以美國為首的旨在結束黎巴嫩-以色列邊境戰鬥的新外交努力仍在進行中。 但真主黨一直明確表示，在以色列結束對加薩的戰爭之前，它不會進行任何外交談判。
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