Two Hezbollah drones caused grave harm in the North, it was announced on Thursday, with one striking an IDF air force base near the Golani Junction and one wounding three soldiers in Metullah.
The strike on the Air Force base took place on Wednesday, but the IDF only cleared that harm was caused for publication on Thursday.
The exact nature of the harm was still being reviewed, and additional aspects are under gag order.
Hezbollah takes responsibility for missiles
Hezbollah claimed that its explosive drones were fired at an Israeli Air Force base where Sky Dew, a giant blimp with missile detection capabilities, is operated.
The IDF does have many redundancies for detecting aerial threats.
At around 35 kilometers into Israel, the base was an unusually deep target for Hezbollah to go after.
The IDF succeeded in shooting down a second attack drone launched by Hezbollah and was probing how it could avoid similar future incidents, with a number of recent incidents where drones have avoided IDF defenses more than Hezbollah rockets.
Also on Thursday, the IDF released a statement that 40 rockets were fired at Israel, following rocket sirens blaring across the Galilee and Golan.
No injuries or damage to structures had been reported at press time, though some fields did catch fire.
Hezbollah had claimed it had fired around 60 rockets, but often, a certain percentage of their rockets misfire or otherwise land within Lebanon.
Thursday continued Hezbollah’s intense attacks from Wednesday in which Lebanese and Israeli media had said that up to dozens of rockets, as well as some anti-tank missiles, were fired at the Western Galilee, including the Mount Meron area and the IDF air force base.Hamas in Lebanon had claimed responsibility for at least some of the rockets, though it appeared that many of their rockets misfired and even injured local Lebanese individuals and possibly killed one.
Sirens set off in Israel
Sirens had been set off on Wednesday in Rosh Hanikra, Betzet, Meron, Bar Yohai, Shlomi and other locations.
The mixed Hezbollah and Hamas response came after the IDF announced early Wednesday the killing of a Hezbollah commander, which itself came after several IDF soldiers were wounded in the North on Tuesday, with one Israeli civilian being killed.
Also, on Wednesday night, the Israeli air force struck several sites in the Baalbek area deep into eastern Lebanon, just hours after Hezbollah’s drone attack on the IDF base, according to Lebanese reports.
The IDF airstrikes targeted sites near the towns of Nabi Chit and Brital in the Bekaa Valley, according to Lebanese reports.
While IDF strikes usually focus on southern Lebanon, there have been a smaller number of times that the military has hit sites of greater strategic value to Hezbollah in the Baalbeck area. This is often to send a stronger message after the terror group has hit an IDF base or Israeli civilians, as opposed to empty houses or fields.
Moreover, Lebanese reports said that on Thursday, the IDF had killed multiple Hezbollah operatives when an alleged Israeli drone hit their car on their way between Ramadia and Kana in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said that this brought the number of its fighters killed since October 7 over the number 300.
The IDF also said it had carried out at least three rounds of extensive air strikes against Hezbollah assets in southern Lebanon on Thursday.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi spoke to soldiers on the northern border, telling them they were doing their jobs of responding strongly to Hezbollah’s provocations, including “causing it real hurt.”
However, short of a ceasefire with Hamas, which leads to a mutual ceasefire with Hezbollah, neither Halevi nor any other Israeli official has proposed a timeline or concrete end game for the conflict in the North.