DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) 鈥� A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others Sunday, the military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its nearly two weeks ago.
The Lebanon-based Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel鈥檚 elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defense systems during the assault by 鈥渟quadrons鈥� of drones.
Israel鈥檚 national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With Israel鈥檚 advanced air-defense systems, it鈥檚 rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since began, and fighting has escalated.
Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
Inside Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 20 people including children at a school Sunday night, according to two local hospitals. The school in Nuseirat was sheltering some of the many Palestinians displaced by the war.
Meanwhile, explosions hit early Monday outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, killing three people and injuring about 50 others, the hospital said. Tents caught fire, and residents of the Central Gaza community carried the injured into the hospital.
Hezbollah's deadly strike in Israel came the same day that the United States announced it would to help bolster protection against missiles, along with troops needed to operate it. An Israeli army spokesperson declined to provide a timeline.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in 鈥� both Iran-backed militant groups 鈥� and is in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
Netanyahu calls UN peacekeepers 鈥榟uman shield鈥� for Hezbollah
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one position early Sunday and destroyed the main gate. They later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers, causing skin irritation. UNIFIL called the incident a 鈥渇urther flagrant violation of international law.鈥�
International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon. Five peacekeepers have been wounded in attacks that struck their positions, with most blamed on Israeli forces.
St茅phane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ant贸nio Guterres, called Sunday's incident 鈥渄eeply worrying鈥� and said attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crime.
Israel鈥檚 military says Hezbollah operates in the peacekeepers' vicinity, without providing evidence.
Military officials said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a U.N. post Sunday while under fire. A smoke screen was used to provide cover, they said.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL, and any instance of U.N. forces being harmed will be investigated at 鈥渢he highest level.鈥�
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for UNIFIL to heed Israel鈥檚 warnings to evacuate, accusing them of 鈥減roviding a human shield鈥� to Hezbollah.
鈥淲e regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,鈥� he said in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, .
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza.
Israeli strike in Lebanon destroys Ottoman-era market
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas鈥� surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, drawing retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah鈥檚 leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders.
Israel launched a ground operation earlier this month. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to Lebanon鈥檚 Health Ministry, which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 58 people have been killed in rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.
Israeli airstrikes overnight destroyed an Ottoman-era market in Lebanon鈥檚 southern city of Nabatiyeh, killing at least one person and wounding four.
鈥淥ur livelihoods have all been leveled,鈥� said Ahmad Fakih, whose shop was destroyed. Rescuers searched pancaked buildings as Israeli drones buzzed overhead.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets, without elaborating, and said it continued to target the militants on Sunday.
Separately, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.
The Red Cross said the operation had been coordinated with U.N. peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side.
Bodies rot in the streets in northern Gaza
Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza almost daily. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp, which dates to , and other areas.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the war's opening weeks.
Palestinians fear Israel intends to to establish military bases or there.
The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since Oct. 1.
The military confirmed that hospitals were included in evacuation orders but said it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfers.
Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry鈥檚 emergency service, said the bodies of a 鈥渓arge number of martyrs鈥� remain uncollected from the streets and under rubble.
鈥淲e are unable to reach them,鈥� he said, asserting that dogs are eating some remains.
when Hamas-led militants attacked a year ago, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages , a third believed to be dead.
Israel's bombardment and its ground invasion of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and . The ministry doesn't distinguish between militants or civilians, but says women and children make up over half the deaths.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb and Abby Sewell in Beirut, Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed to this report.
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Find more of AP鈥檚 war coverage at .
Wafaa Shurafa And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press
