Hezbollah claims responsibility for new drone attack against Israel

Hezbollah announced on Sunday that it had launched an "explosive drone" against a military site in northern Israel, in response to the death of a Jamaa Islamiya official killed in an Israeli strike that targeted his vehicle in Khiara in the Bekaa on Saturday. The Israeli army confirmed that it had "eliminated" the official, who it accused of supplying arms to Hamas.

In a statement, Hezbollah said that after 8 a.m., in response to "the assassination perpetrated by the Israeli enemy in the locality of Khiara (West Bekaa), its fighters launched an air attack using drones equipped with explosives, targeting the headquarters of the Israeli Sahl battalion at the Beit Hillel barracks. The attack directly hit the positions of officers and soldiers, causing casualties."

The Israeli army said in a statement that a "hostile drone launched from Lebanon" had entered northern Israel but had been intercepted. It "fell in the area of Beit Hillel without causing any casualties." Warning sirens were activated in the area.

Hezbollah also released a new video showing what it claims are sites in Israel with their coordinates, without identifying them. Its release comes five days after the party revealed images of Haifa taken, according to it, by a drone that flew over this major port in northern Israel.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, Hezbollah and allied groups "supporting" the Palestinian Islamist movement have been exchanging cross-border fire. More than eight months of violence between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in border areas has left at least 469 people dead in Lebanon, most of them fighters from the pro-Iranian party. The death toll also includes 73 civilians. On the Israeli side, at least 17 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed, according to our count.