Hezbollah targets Israeli naval base after deadly drone strike

BEIRUT

This picture taken from Lebanon's southern city of Tyre shows a cloud of smoke erupting following an Israeli air strike on the village of Deir Qanoun on Oct. 14, 2024.

Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli naval base on Monday, a day after a drone strike killed four soldiers in the deadliest attack on Israel since the war in Lebanon began.

The group said its fighters launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa in northern Israel, calling it a tribute to its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had intercepted another launch aimed at a training camp at Binyamina, also near Haifa, a day after four soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in a Hezbollah drone strike.

Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi visited the Golani Brigade's training camp in Binyamina and told soldiers, "We are at war, and an attack on a training base on the home front is difficult, and the results are painful."

Israeli volunteer rescue service United Hatzalah said its teams in Binyamina assisted more than 60 people with mild to critical injuries.

Hezbollah threatened more attacks if Israel continues its offensive in Lebanon, warning Israel what it saw was "nothing compared to what awaits it if it decides to continue its aggression.”

In Lebanon, Israel has expanded its air strikes mainly on Hezbollah strongholds, while its troops in south Lebanon have engaged in fierce fighting.

"I'm staying here, and I will not leave... Nabatiyeh is our mother. It's heartbreaking to see people's livelihoods gone," said Tarek Sadaka, barely holding back tears.

Others have fled the city, with more than 1 million Lebanese leaving areas that morphed into war zones within weeks.

In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard early on Monday killed at least four people and triggered a fire that swept through a tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.

The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.

Several secondary explosions could be heard after the initial strike, but it was not immediately clear if they were caused by weapons or fuel tanks.