The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli army base on the northern border on Wednesday. Israeli forces said they responded with a drone strike on a Hezbollah post as fighting continued in southern Israel following a devastating attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
There have been several deadly clashes along the northern border in recent days, some caused by Palestinian terror groups from Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon and others by Hezbollah itself.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack with an anti-tank missile on an Israeli army base near the northern Israeli village of Arab al-Aramshe.
In a statement, the group said the attack was in response to the deaths of three members in Israeli strikes on Monday, which were in response to earlier clashes at the border.
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Hezbollah claimed it caused “a large number of confirmed casualties” in the rocket attack.
The IDF said it carried out attacks in Lebanon in response to the attack, but did not provide any casualty information.
IDF armored troops in a staging area in the Upper Galilee, near Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, October 11, 2023. (Ayal Margolin/Flash90)
The military said a drone hit a Hezbollah post in southern Lebanon and artillery shelled the source of the rocket fire.
Amid incidents at the border, a rocket siren sounded in Arab al-Aramshe, which the military later described as a false alarm.
On Tuesday evening, Hezbollah carried out a separate anti-tank missile attack against an unoccupied IDF armored vehicle on the Lebanese border.
This attack came after 15 rockets were fired from Lebanon into the western Galilee, causing no injuries. Gaza-based Hamas later claimed responsibility for the rocket attack from Lebanon.
The IDF said it hit three Hezbollah posts in response to Tuesday’s rocket fire and anti-tank missile attack.
Clashes broke out between Israeli forces and terrorists on the border with Lebanon on Monday. The clashes left three Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists dead. Three Hezbollah members were killed in the Israeli retaliatory attack on the terrorist group’s sites.
Rockets were also fired at Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and Monday.
Flames and smoke rise after Israeli shelling in the village of Jal al-Allam in southern Lebanon, October 10, 2023. (AP/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah has largely sidelined previous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terror groups, but has allowed local Palestinian factions to operate from its territory in southern Lebanon.
The military has bolstered forces in northern Israel amid fears the Lebanon-based terror group could open a second front amid the war sparked by Saturday’s unprecedented invasion of Israel by hundreds of Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip.
Amid tensions in northern Israel, many residents of towns near the border with Lebanon have left their homes over the past day for fear of further rocket attacks.
Wednesday’s rocket fire from Lebanon came as hundreds of rockets continued to be fired from the Gaza Strip into southern and central Israel.
On Saturday morning, Palestinian terrorists rampaged through the south of the country, killing about 1,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and kidnapping at least 100 prisoners into Gaza. Since then, the number of Israeli casualties has risen to over 1,200 dead and thousands injured.