Hezbollah drone attack in Israel wounds nearly 40 people, 3 critically: reports

Rescue services in Israel said nearly 40 people were wounded, three of them critically, in a drone strike in Binyamina, Israel, which the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group has claimed responsibility for, according to reports.

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.

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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.

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Rescue workers at the scene on Sunday night’s UAV/drone strike on Benyamina, Israel. (credit: Tsuriya Zeevi/TPS-IL)

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.

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Rescue workers at the scene on Sunday night’s UAV/drone strike on Benyamina, Israel. (credit: Tsuriya Zeevi/TPS-IL)

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.

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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.

Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.