dpa
Tel Aviv/Beirut
Four Israeli soldiers were killed and seven were severely injured when a rocket attack launched by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon on Sunday hit an army base about 60km north of Tel Aviv, the army said on Monday.
The Shiite organization, based in Lebanon, claimed responsibility and threatened Israel with more attacks should the country not stop its offensive in Lebanon.
More than 60 were wounded in the attack on the base, according to the national emergency service Magen David Adom. The attack, was near the Israeli town of Binyamina in central Israel about 60 kilometres north of Tel Aviv. It was one of the bloodiest attacks since the beginning of the Gaza war just over a year ago.
Warning signs did not sound before the attack. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said they will investigate how this could have happened.
Meanwhile, the death toll from an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in northern Lebanon has risen to 21, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Another eight were injured, the ministry said. It added that DNA tests are being carried out on remains to identify them.
The Israeli strike hit a house in the area of Aito where displaced people from southern Lebanon were sheltering, a Lebanese security source said.
It was the first time this area has been hit by Israeli.
According to an initial investigation, Hezbollah launched two kamikaze drones from Lebanon that entered Israeli airspace from the sea, the Times of Israel reported. Both drones were detected by radar and one was shot down off the coast north of Haifa.
Planes and helicopters pursued the second drone, but it disappeared from the radar. No sirens wailed because it was assumed that the drone had crashed or been intercepted, the newspaper reported. The drone finally hit near Binyamina. Hezbollah said it had fired a “squadron of attack drones” at an Israeli military training camp in the town.
“The enemy that what it witnessed today in southern Haifa is but a small taste of what awaits if it decides to continue its aggression against our noble and beloved people,” Hezbollah said in a message posted on Telegram.
Israel’s elaborate system of air defences usually prevents such mass casualty incidents, despite Hezbollah and other groups regularly launching barrages of drones and other projectiles.
