The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack early Monday on northern Israel that the Israeli military said wounded two Israeli troops and set off a fire.
The violence came as fears of an all-out regional war mount following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement it targeted a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in south Lebanon.
The attack did not appear to be part of a more intense retaliation expected in response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut last week.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that had not escalated into full-on war.
Last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and Hezbollah commander Shukur in Beirut raised tensions in the region. Israel has been bracing for a retaliation from Iran and its allied militias.
Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatened Israel on Monday over the assassination of Haniyeh, warning that Israel was “digging its own grave” with its actions in its war against Hamas.
“They will see the result of their mistake. They will see when, how and where they will get their response,” Salami said in a speech.
Israel returns more than 80 bodies to the Gaza Strip, Palestinian official says: A Palestinian official says Israel has returned more than 80 bodies to the Gaza Strip.
The identities of the deceased and the cause of death were not immediately known.
Over the course of its nearly 10-month offensive in Gaza, the military has exhumed remains as it searches for the bodies of hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack, which ignited the war.
Weam Fares, a spokesperson for the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, says 84 bodies were handed over at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Monday and were taken directly for burial. The hospital did not provide further details.
The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.
Associated Press reporters saw the bodies being brought to a cemetery in a container truck belonging to a private company. They were buried in a mass grave.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was not involved in the transfer.
Meanwhile, The Israeli military said Palestinian militants fired at least 15 projectiles into Israel from Gaza, and first responders say one person was lightly wounded.
Rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza have dwindled as Israel has waged its massive offensive there in response to Hamas’ October 7 attack. But militants are still able to regularly fire short-range projectiles on Israeli communities and army bases near the border.
Most rockets fired from Gaza are intercepted or fall in open areas, and they rarely cause casualties or damage. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service says one person was lightly wounded in Monday’s barrage.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until it has eliminated Hamas’ military and governing capabilities.