As Israel continues retaliatory military action against Hamas in Gaza following the horrific multi-front terror attack by Hamas in Southern Israel on Saturday (7 October), the attacks on Israel from Lebanon in the north has also intensified. After missiles and mortars were fired into Israel from Lebanon, the base of the armed group Hezbollah, today sirens went off in towns across northern Israel after several drones infiltrated from Lebanon.
Reports suggest that dozens of drones were launched from Lebanon into Israel. As a result, alarms were sounded in several places including the Golan Heights, Tiberias, Safed, Beit Shean and other areas. Residents in those places were asked to lock their houses and enter shelters due to threats of bombings and terror attacks.
As per a report by Channel 12, 15 to 20 drones and aircraft were spotted near Upper Galilee in northern Israel. The head of the Galil Elyon Regional Council, Giora Zaltz, told Channel 12 news that some of the aircraft that infiltrated from Lebanon are carrying people, and residents need to seek shelter. “This is what we feared, what we were preparing for,” he added.
Channel 12 also published a map showing the places where alarms went off, and it shows that hundreds of places along the Lebanon border are considered under threat.
The aircraft carrying people could be paragliders, the aircraft used by Hamas terrorists to enter Israel from Gaza during the Saturday attack.
However, the Israel Defense Forces said it has not identified any impacts and there are no reports of injuries following drone infiltration alerts that sounded across northern Israel. “IDF forces are scanning the area from the ground and from the air,” the military said.
Moreover, long-range rockets fired from Gaza fell in an open area in Haifa, the coastal city in northern Israel. This rocket attack triggered alarms in the city.
Video of a drone flying over northern Israel had also appeared, but later it was found to be Israeli.
The drone infiltration comes after Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position near the Lebanon border earlier on Wednesday. The Israel Defense Forces said that it responded with a drone strike on a Hezbollah post. Earlier, 15 rockets were launched from Lebanon at the Western Galilee, however, nobody was injured in the attack. IDF has been engaging with Hezbollah on the northern border since the Hamas attack.
It is notable that earlier today the US and several other Western powers warned Hezbollah against escalating the Israel-Hamas war.
