The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday it launched a drone attack targeting an Israeli military base in retaliation for the killings of a senior Hezbollah commander and the deputy leader of the Hamas militant group.
Hamas said the drone was aimed at attacking the Israeli base in Safed, an area located about 10 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Israeli military said it launched interceptors to counter several aircraft that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory and that a projectile fell at a base in northern Israel. The military said there were no casualties and no damage.
Security officials reported an Israeli drone strike Tuesday hit a car in southern Lebanon, killing three people.
The attack came a day after an Israeli strike on a vehicle in southern Lebanon killed a commander that Hezbollah identified as Wissam al-Tawil, who a security official said had a leading role in Hezbollah’s operations in the area.
Israel said its military hit Hezbollah targets on Monday, but it did not comment on Tawil’s death.
Tawil is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas' shock Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel continued its air and ground campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, including airstrikes in central Gaza and in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it killed around 40 Palestinian militants in Khan Younis.
Residents in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza said Israeli forces conducted shelling and engaged in gun battles with militants.
The United Nations has warned of the dire effects of the conflict on civilians in Gaza, with most people living there having fled their homes and humanitarian workers and health facilities facing difficulty in providing aid.
“The intensifying offensive in Gaza’s Middle Area and Khan Younis is causing rapidly rising casualties and having devastating consequences for tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom had already fled for safety from Gaza city and the north to the Middle Area,” the U.N. humanitarian agency said Monday.
The agency also said Israeli authorities denied multiple attempts by humanitarian partners to deliver urgent medical supplies to northern Gaza, leaving five hospitals there without life-saving medical supplies and equipment.
Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to erase Hamas’ control of the Gaza Strip, end the threat the militant group poses to Israel and free what are believed to be 129 hostages still held by Hamas.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people in its October attack on Israel and captured 240 hostages. The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, with vast swaths of Gaza left in rubble and 85% of its population of 2.3 million displaced.
Some material for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
