Hezbollah says launched ‘squadrons of drones’ at Israel

Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Hamam on August 9, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Iran-back Hezbollah group said it launched on Saturday explosive-laden drones at a north Israel army base following the killing of a Hamas commander in south Lebanon a day earlier.

Hezbollah fighters launched “squadrons of explosive-laden drones” at the Michve Alon base near the Galilee town of Safed “in response to the attack and assassination carried out by the Israeli enemy in the city of Sidon” on Friday, the group said in a statement.

Hezbollah’s media office said it was “the first time” the group had targeted that base.

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On Friday, an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the south Lebanon city of Sidon killed a Hamas commander, the Palestinian militant group and the Israeli military said.

Hamas said in a statement that Samer al-Hajj was killed “in a Zionist strike in the city of Sidon”.

The Israeli military said that its aircraft struck the Sidon area and “eliminated” Hajj, whom it identified as “a senior commander” for Hamas in Lebanon.

It was the first strike of its kind in Sidon since Hamas launched its October 7 attack on Israel, triggering war in Gaza and prompting its Lebanese ally Hezbollah to begin trading near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army in a bid to tie down its troops.

READ: Hezbollah attacks Israel after deadly south Lebanon strike

Ten months of cross-border violence has killed some 562 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including at least 116 civilians, according to the AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.