One person injured in Hezbollah drone attack on northern Israel

11 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least one person was injured Thursday in a new drone attack by the Shiite militia party Hezbollah against northern Israel, amid a surge in clashes on the border with Lebanon and fears of a possible expansion of the conflict in the Middle East.

Medical sources cited by the Israeli newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’ have detailed that the injured man is in critical condition after the impact of a kamikaze drone near Kibbutz Kabri, after the Army confirmed the interception of several drones in the area, although it acknowledged that some had impacted in the country.

Hezbollah immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and said that the target was a military base in northern Israel, according to the Lebanese television channel Al Manar, which is linked to the group. It said that “appropriate weapons” had been used and that it had achieved a “direct hit.”

The attack took place hours after the Israeli army bombed several targets allegedly linked to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, as part of the clashes that have been taking place in the area since October 8, a day after the attacks perpetrated against Israeli territory by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions, which left nearly 1,200 dead and some 240 kidnapped.

Tensions have been on the rise in recent weeks, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warning that the Israeli army “is prepared for a very powerful action” on the border with Lebanon, while Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qassem, has maintained that an expansion of the conflict would lead to “devastation and destruction” in Israel.

For his part, the leader of the Lebanese group, Hassan Nasrallah, said on Wednesday that if Hamas and Israel reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Shiite militia-party will also “unconditionally” end its attacks from Lebanon’s southern border, as several senior members of the party had expressed in the previous days.