Hezbollah drones hit Israeli military training base, kill 4 | Pentagon deploys THAAD defense system, operators to Israel | Israeli bombing on health center in south Lebanon kills 4

Hezbollah launched what it called a “swarm” of drones on Sunday evening at an Israeli military training base in Binyamina town to the south of Haifa.

The drones killed four soldiers and injured 58 more, according to Israeli media reports, which said that eight of those wounded were in serious condition.

The attack was significantly larger than any operation that Hezbollah has carried out on Israel since it began launching low-grade airstrikes on the Occupation military in October 2023, with the strategic aim of supporting the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, against Israel.

In a statement released after the attack by the group’s operations room — which, according to media reports, was founded in the wake of Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to direct the group’s military operations — Hezbollah said that it launched missiles initially at Akka and Nahariya “with the aim of preoccupying Israel’s air defense systems” and that a number of drone swarms were launched simultaneously at Akka and Haifa.

The drones exploded in a room where dozens of the Golani Brigade, an infantry unit specializing in operations in northern Israel, were gathered, including soldiers and officers, Hezbollah said, gesturing toward its intelligence-gathering capacity. Israeli and Lebanese media reported that the drones had reached a room in which the infantry unit was dining.

Hezbollah said that it conducted the operations in response to Israel’s repeated attacks on Lebanon, particularly on central Beirut and the city’s southern suburbs. Israel’s most aggressive airstrike on Beirut yet killed 22 people and injured over 100 on Thursday night last week. Airstrikes conducted nightly on Beirut’s southern suburbs have abated over recent days.

Retired Lebanese Brigadier General Adel Mashmoshy described the operation to Mada Masr as the “most precise and complex operation Hezbollah has carried out yet, inflicting the most damage.”

It comes as Israel’s operations against the party, targeting many of its fighters and leaders — all the way up to the secretary general — are also unprecedented in previous wars, including 2006, said Mashmoshy.

Prior to Hezbollah’s Sunday operation on the Golani Brigade, the Pentagon said it had authorized the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to Israel to help bolster its air defenses, noting that US military personnel would also be deployed to the Occupation military to operate the defense system. The Pentagon said the deployment was being made given the United States’s “ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on Israel in October and April.

Hezbollah conducted 38 operations in total on Sunday, the group said, including the drone and missile strikes deep into Israeli territory as well as missile barrages it launches on settlements in north Israel. 

The group also clashed on Sunday morning with Israeli ground forces attempting incursions into Lebanese land, launching rocket salvos at Israeli troops and vehicles in Ramyeh and Qaouzah in the southwest, at Mays al-Jabal, and at Blida and Maroun al-Ras further east on Lebanon’s southern border.

Hezbollah forces clashed again on Monday morning with Israeli ground forces attempting incursions at Labouneh, in Lebanon’s southwest, and at Khallet Warda further east on the border near Aita al-Shaab, which was subject to heavy Israeli air raids overnight.

Israel conducted heavy airstrikes on southern Lebanon beginning at dawn on Monday. One of its air raids struck a health center in Yahmor al-Shaqif, Nabatieh, killing four staff members, according to an Islamic Health Authority source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. The health authority is a Hezbollah-affiliated paramedic organization working to provide professional emergency healthcare services across Lebanon.

Another health center further west in Sadiqeen, near Qana, was also struck on Sunday, according to the Health Ministry, which said that one person was killed in the strike and condemned “the Israeli enemy's continued targeting of medical, relief and ambulance crews in the absence of any firm position to deter it from this crime by the international community.”

Clashes at the border in Lebanon continued to cause friction on Sunday with the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) deployed there with a peacekeeping mandate under United Nations Security Resolution 1701.

In an attempt to justify its repeated targeting of UNIFIL forces along the Blue Line, the Israeli military claimed on Sunday that Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from platforms located a few meters away from the UN forces' camps.

On Sunday evening, UNIFIL said that Israeli forces had entered Lebanon near Ramiyeh at dawn on the same day, and that two Israeli Merkav tanks had destroyed the main gate at the nearby UN position while peacekeepers were in their shelters. It said the Israeli forces withdrew after UNIFIL communicated the infraction via its liaison branch, but noted that fire further north several hours later caused respiratory issues to 15 UNIFIL troops. It said it had requested an explanation from the Israeli military “for these shocking actions.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly called UNIFIL Commander Major General  Aroldo Lázaro on Monday, thanking him for his “wise and courageous” stance in maintaining the UNIFIL’s positions at the border. Israel has repeatedly requested the withdrawal of the UNIFIL troops from the area.