Hezbollah drone attack on Nahariya wounds at least 7
Hezbollah attacked Tuesday with an array of suicide drones an Israeli town near the border between Akka and Nahariya, wounding at least seven people, in response to the killing of one of its fighters in an Israeli airstrike.
Sirens sounded in Nahariya before a loud blast was heard and smoke began rising from an intersection. Earlier, an Associated Press reporter saw a drone flying over the city. The reporter later saw emergency crews rushing to the scene.
Gal Zaid, spokesperson for Galilee Medical Center, said it was treating one severely wounded person and four others with mild injuries. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating seven wounded in three locations in Western Galilee.
Hezbollah claimed several attacks on Israel on Tuesday, including the drone attack that the group said targeted a command center in a barracks north of the coastal town of Akka.
Hezbollah said the attack was in response to the Monday "assassination" of Ali Jamaleddine Jawad whom Israel said was from the group's elite Radwan unit.
Jawad was killed in a drone strike on his motorcycle in the southern village of Ebba. Hezbollah confirmed that he was killed "on the road to Jerusalem" without giving details about his job within the group.
The Israeli military said a number of drones entered from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted. It said several civilians were wounded near the coastal town of Nahariya, some 6 kilometers south of the border, without giving a precise number.
It later said an initial inquiry indicated that one of its interceptor missiles "missed the target and hit the ground, injuring several civilians", adding that "the incident is under review."
Hezbollah has launched near-daily drone and rocket attacks along the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in what it says is an act of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel has responded with airstrikes, one of which killed four people in southern Lebanon earlier Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities.
