Israeli authorities said four Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed and nearly 60 people were wounded in a drone strike on a military base in Binyamina, Israel, which the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group has claimed responsibility for, according to reports.
‘Yesterday, a UAV launched by the Hezbollah terrorist organization hit an army base,’ the IDF said in a post on X. ‘[Four] IDF soldiers were killed in the incident. The IDF shares in the grief of the bereaved families and will continue to accompany them.’
Earlier on Sunday, rescue services in Israel reported that nearly 60 people were wounded in the strike, some of them critically.
Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, one of which was intercepted.
Who was hurt – whether military members or civilians – or what was struck was not immediately clear.
On Thursday, Israel conducted two strikes in Beirut that killed 22 people, and Hezbollah said it was retaliating for the strikes by targeting an Israeli military training camp.
This was the second time in two days that a drone struck Israel.
On Sunday, as Israelis were celebrating Yom Kippur, there was a drone strike in a Tel Aviv suburb that damaged the area but did not cause any injuries.
Iran and its proxy terrorist groups launched massive waves of missiles against Israel earlier this year in April and again on Oct. 1. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) has previously been deployed to Israel in 2019, but only for an exercise, Pentagon officials say.
Sunday’s strike came the same day the U.S. said it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to increase protection from missiles.
‘The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system. This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran. It is part of the broader adjustments the U.S. military has made in recent months, to support the defense of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias,’ the Pentagon said in a statement.
Iran’s massive Oct. 1 missile barrage displayed the threat Iran poses to Israel as a regional power. While debris from hundreds of rockets and missiles rained down on Israeli territory, there were no Israeli fatalities reported.
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson and Anders Hagstrom, along with The Associated Press contributed to this report.