The IDF reported that at around 5:40 AM Thursday, the Air Force intercepted an unmanned aerial vehicle in the skies of Syria that was launched from the east and made its way into Israeli territory. The army emphasized that “the drone was intercepted before it crossed into the country’s territory.”
Hours earlier, around midnight, the IDF announced that another drone launched from the east was intercepted by a missile boat:
Earlier on Wednesday, an Air Force aircraft, under intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence and Southern Command, attacked and destroyed an armed missile launcher in the humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip. The launcher was aimed at Israeli territory and posed a real and immediate threat to the Israeli home front.
Many steps were taken before the attack to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including evacuating the population from the area with extensive warnings, using precision weaponry, and aerial surveillance. After the attack, secondary explosions were seen indicating the presence of numerous weapons at the launch site.
IDF spokesman in Arabic Avichay Adraee tweeted a call for residents of two buildings in the Dahya Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut to evacuate. In the announcement, Adraee wrote that the residents are located near Hezbollah infrastructure that the army is about to attack and that they are required to move more than 500 meters away from the buildings for their safety.