Following sirens that were activated Monday morning in response to hostile aircraft infiltrating the Western Galilee area, two were critically injured by a drone hit in the Ya’ara area, and a fire broke out.
Ya’ara (lit. Honeysuckle) is a moshav located near Ma’alot-Tarshiha in Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council, northern Israel, population 806.
Below: a suicide drone hits Arab al-Aramsha, a Bedouin village in the Western Galilee:
Another day of battle began on the northern front Monday with a sequence of alarms in the early morning hours Monday in Nahariya and the Western Galilee, following a combined attack by Hezbollah that included firing explosive drones and rockets. Alarm sirens were also heard in border settlements that were not evacuated of their residents. After a fire broke out in Ya’ara, fire crews rushed to the scene.
The Lebanese television channels al-Manar and al-Mayadeen, both affiliated with Hezbollah, claimed the IDF had attempted to penetrate Lebanon during the night in the area of Aita al-Sha’ab, but Hezbollah gunmen fired at the force, forcing it to retreat to Israel. The IDF denied the report, and local residents said no unusual troop movements were seen in the area overnight.
Hezbollah released a video on Friday displaying trucks carrying heavy missiles driving through what looked like a huge tunnel network. A source in Hezbollah said: “The enemy wants a war and is always attempting to pressure us, so we are ready for all possibilities.” The source boasted that Hezbollah’s rocket capabilities were “very large” and the images that were displayed in Friday’s video were just “a drop in the ocean of what Hezbollah possesses.”
In the wake of the recent assassinations in Beirut and Tehran, the United States and its Western allies have intensified their diplomatic efforts to prevent the eruption of a regional war. Amos Hochstein, the US envoy, made visits to both Tel Aviv and Beirut this week, and an urgent meeting aimed at establishing a ceasefire in Gaza took place in Qatar last weekend.
However, Western diplomatic sources in Beirut report a lack of information regarding Hezbollah’s pledged retaliation against Israel. They claim that the group has not provided any hints about the timing or location of their planned attack.
