 "4 Israeli soldiers killed as Hezbollah tricks IDF to launch drone attack at military base")
Four Israeli soldiers were killed and over 60 others were injured in a drone strike carried out by Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group targetting a military base near Binyamina in north-central Israel on Sunday night.
The drone strike by Hezbollah was one of the deadliest attacks on Israel since October 7, 2023 and came on the same day the United States announced that it would be sending a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to operate it.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched by Hezbollah hit an army base “adjacent to Binyamina”, a town north of Tel Aviv that lies some 40 miles from the Lebanese border.
Seven Israeli soldiers have been severely injured in the Hezbollah drone strike, the IDF said.
As per Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service, a total of 61 people were wounded in the attack late on Sunday.
Hezbollah carries out retaliatory attack on Israel
Claiming the attack, Hezbollah said it had targeted a training base belonging to the IDF’s Golani Brigade, based between Tel Aviv and Haifa, with a “swarm of drones.”
The media office of the Lebanon-based terrorist group said the drone attack was in response to Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Thursday in which 22 people were killed and 117 others were injured.
The claim of responsibility for the drone attack at the Israeli military base came within minutes after Hezbollah released an audio message from its slain leader Hassan Nasrallah calling on members of his terrorist group to “defend your people, your family, your nation, your values and your dignity.”
A report by Times of Israel, quoted Hebrew media as indicating that the drone attack struck a dining hall inside the military base.
The report further mentioned that an initial probe into the attack indicated that two drones – both “Mirsad” drones, known in Iran as the Ababil-T – were launched by Hezbollah entered Israeli airspace from the sea .
As per the Alma Center, an Israeli research institute focused on security challenges in the north, the drone used for attack on Israeli military base on Sunday has “a 120-kilometer assault range, a top speed of 370 kilometers per hour, the capacity to carry up to 40 kilograms of explosives, and the ability to fly at altitudes of up to 3,000 meters.”
Hezbollah fired rockets to engage Israel’s defence systems
According to a report by CNN, Hezbollah claimed to have fired dozens of rockets toward the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya and Acre to engage Israel’s air defense systems, while simultaneously launching the drone swarm.
“These drones broke through the Israel defense radars without detection and reached their target at the training camp of the elite Golani Brigade in Binyamina,” Hezbollah claimed.
What happened to Israeli air defence systems?
The Israeli defence systems are considered to be very reliable, but on Sunday, there were no warning sirens at the time of the attack in the Binyamina area, raising questions of how the drone was able to reach the Israeli territory without being spotted.
In a statement shortly after midnight, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the circumstances surrounding the incident were being examined, as the drone had failed to set off any warning sirens.
“The IDF has full operational control over the incident,” Hagari said, urging the public to refrain from spreading rumors about the attack while the facts were still being established.
“We will investigate how a UAV can breach without warning and hit a base,” he further said.
Hagari went on to say that Israel has faced the threat posed by UAVs “since the beginning of the war.”
“We are required to provide better protection. We will investigate this incident, learn from it and improve," he added.
With inputs from agencies.
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