World

Hezbollah launches drone attack on northern Israel

Two Israeli soldiers were injured amid fears of a wider regional war.

Israel has been braced for the response to the killing of senior figures in Hamas and Hezbollah (Naama Grynbaum/Pool Photo via AP)
Israel has been braced for the response to the killing of senior figures in Hamas and Hezbollah (Naama Grynbaum/Pool Photo via AP) (Naama Grynbaum/AP)

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack on northern Israel that injured two Israeli troops.

The violence came as fears of an all-out regional war mount following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’s top political leader in Iran.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement it targeted a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in south Lebanon.

The attack did not appear to be part of a more intense retaliation expected in response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut last week.

An Israeli strike on Sunday hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip (AP)
An Israeli strike on Sunday hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip (AP) (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

The Israeli military said fire services were working to put out a blaze sparked by the attack in Ayelet HaShahar in the upper Galilee.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that had not escalated into full-on war.

Last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and Hezbollah commander Shukur in Beirut raised tensions in the region.

Israel has been bracing for a retaliation from Iran and its allied militias.