The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah unleashed a slew of drone and rocket attacks on Israel Tuesday — but warned that the brunt of its revenge for Israel’s assassination of a top commander last week was yet to come.
Two military sites near Acre in northern Israel and an Israeli military vehicle in another location were among the spots targeted in the latest attack, the armed group said.
The Israeli military confirmed a number of hostile drones had been identified crossing over from Lebanon and at least one was intercepted.
Hezbollah said it unleashed a slew of drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel Tuesday. XAt least 19 Israeli civilians were injured, including one critically, in one of the strikes near the northern coastal city of Nahariya, according to Israeli officials.
Surveillance footage of that drone strike captured a huge explosion erupting near a bus stop on a main road outside the city.
At least one victim was wounded by an Iron Dome interceptor missile that malfunctioned, Israeli Defense Force officials later confirmed, according to The Times of Israel.
The critically wounded victim, a man in his 40s, was hit by a projectile while he was driving and then crashed on the side of the road. Just a few hundred yards away, a 65-year-old woman was hurt by shrapnel.
Six IDF soldiers were also hurt at an army base in the area, officials said.
All victims were taken to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya for treatment.
One witness told Kan News it was a “miracle” that he survived the attack by diving on the ground when he heard sirens, followed by the sound of a drone flying overhead. There was a large explosion and shrapnel flew over him.
“I only survived because I lay down. It was a miracle. I’ve never seen such a thing,” the man, who did not give his name, told Kan News.
The attack drones were launched as fears continue to mount that the Middle East could be tipped into full-blown war after Hezbollah vowed to target civilians as it seeks to avenge last Tuesday’s slaying of Fuad Shukr, the Tehran-backed terror group’s most senior military commander.
A Hezbollah source told Reuters on Tuesday that “the response to the assassination of commander Fuad Shukr has not yet come.”
Fears are also rising over a looming retribution attack by Iran following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.
A top Iranian diplomat warned Monday that the response to the two slayings of the Hamas and Hezbollah leaders would be “definitive and decisive.”
Israeli police work at the site of a drone strike in Nahariya, Israel, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. AP“Such aggression cannot go unanswered,” Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kani said he told a meeting of fellow foreign diplomats in Tehran.
“The Islamic Republic’s response will be definitive and decisive.”
An Arab diplomat said one Iranian official speculated Monday the attack would occur “imminently” within 48 hours, the Wall Street Journal reported.
It echoed the timeline US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave during a call with Group of Seven foreign ministers on Sunday, two diplomats briefed on the call told the outlet.
Hezbollah said it launched a swarm of attack drones against military targets in northern Israel, in Nahariya, Israel, August 6, 2024. XMeanwhile, President Biden held frantic crisis talks on Monday in Washington regarding the potential Iranian counterattack on the Jewish state.
Biden too called Jordan’s King Abdullah about the dire situation. Separately, Blinken called top officials in Qatar and Egypt — the key intermediaries seeking a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“We are engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much around the clock, with a very simple message — all parties must refrain from escalation,” Blinken said in the wake of the White House crisis talks.
“It’s also critical that we break this cycle by reaching a cease-fire in Gaza.”
American-backed cease-fire and hostage talks have been paused indefinitely as both sides wait to see Iran’s military response to the assassination of Haniyeh, a key negotiator for the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Hamas named Yahya Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau to replace Haniyeh in a dramatic political shift towards the Palestinian militant group’s hardline wing.
Sinwar is the organization’s top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. A highly secretive figure, he has close ties with Iran and worked for years to build up Hamas’ military strength.
The move shows that Hamas is willing to keep fighting 10 months into the war.
It is also likely to provoke Israel, which put Sinwar at the top of its kill list after the Oct. 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 were taken hostage.
With Post wires






