Two Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah Metula drone attack
The Israeli army said Tuesday that two soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah Monday attack on a post near Metula in northern Israel.
Master Sgt. (res.) Dan Kamkagi, 31, from Kfar Oranim, and Master Sgt. (res) Nahman Natan Hertz, 31, from Elazar, who served in the 551st Brigade’s 6551st Battalion, were killed after Israel's defense forces failed, to intercept an explosive drone.
Another soldier was hurt, the army said.
Israeli jets struck in response the southern towns of Srebbine and Ayta al-Shaab.
The Israeli army also said "fighter jets struck approximately 15 (Hezbollah) military structures and terror infrastructure" in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah claimed the drone attack on troops in northern Israel, with the Israeli army saying "a UAV (drone) was identified crossing from Lebanon into the area of Metula".
On Monday,an Israeli strike wounded three people in Sifri in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley in the Baalbek area and Hezbollah launched "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at an Israeli base in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in retaliation.
Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.
In recent weeks Hamas-ally Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks on northern Israel, and the Israeli military has struck deeper into Lebanese territory.
The intensifying exchanges have stoked fears of all-out conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which went to war in 2006.
In Lebanon, at least 390 people have been killed in nearly seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also more than 70 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On Sunday official media in Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a southern village killed four family members, with Hezbollah announcing retaliatory attacks.
Israel says 11 soldiers and nine civilians have been killed on its side of the border.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides.
Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot on Monday called for an urgent “diplomatic solution” to end intensifying clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli military along the tense border.
“The Netherlands has grave concerns about rising tensions in the border region and intensified fighting, and we regret the loss of innocent civilian lives,” Bruins Slot said following a meeting with her Lebanese counterpart, caretaker Foreign Minister Fouad Bou Habib in Beirut. “And this has implications for Lebanon and the wider region.”
Israel, which sees Hezbollah as its most direct threat, has not ruled out a war in southern Lebanon. It estimates that the Iran-backed Shiite group has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at the country. Hezbollah and Israel fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a tense stalemate.
Western diplomats have scrambled to halt the hostilities. Hezbollah, and ally of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, has maintained that it would stop its attacks on northern Israel when the Hamas-Israel war ends.
Source: Naharnet
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