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Hezbollah has carried out two drone attacks against sites of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in response to the recent assassination of a member of Lebanon’s Islamic Group.
Ayman Ghatma, a member of the Islamic Group with links to the Palestinian Hamas Movement, was targeted with a loitering munition and killed while driving near the town of Khiara in the eastern Lebanese governorate of Beqaa on June 22.
The IDF said that Ghatma was responsible for supplying weapons to both the Islamic Group and Hamas and was also involved in advancing attacks against Israel.
The Islamic Group is the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The party’s military wing, the al-Fajr Forces, has been launching attacks alongside Hezbollah and other allies from Lebanon against the IDF since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip last October.
On June 23, Hezbollah announced drone attacks in response to the assassination. In two statements, the group said it struck the Beit Hillel barracks with a single suicide drone and launched a “squadron” of drones at a deployment point of the IDF’s 91st Divsion near the settlement of Ayelet HaShahar.
Hezbollah also launched rocket attacks against the border sites of al-Samaqa and al-Ramtha. These attacks were however carried out in support of the Palestinian people and resistance in Gaza, according to separate statements released by the group.
The IDF confirmed that a drone struck Beit Hillel after an interceptor fired by its air defenses failed to shoot it down. It also admitted that several drones attacked the deployment point near Ayelet HaShahar, with only one being intercepted. A soldier was seriously wounded in the attack.
Hezbollah and its allies have escalated attacks against Israel in support of Gaza in recent weeks. Senior Israeli officials threatened Lebanon with a military operation in response.
So far, the clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border have resulted in ten civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of at least 15 IDF soldiers and reservists. On the Lebanese side, more than 500 people have been killed, including 330 fighters of Hezbollah and at least 90 civilians.
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