Four soldiers were killed and over 60 injured in a Hezbollah drone attack from Lebanon on Sunday evening near Binyamina in the district of Haifa.
The IDF said that the families of the fallen soldiers had been notified.
According to the Magen David Adom emergency service, five of the casualties were seriously injured, and another 15 sustained moderate wounds. The remaining victims were lightly hurt.
“We asked for the army to help by providing helicopters, and some of the wounded will be evacuated to hospitals in the center of the country,” said MDA director-general Eli Bin, adding that medics were searching the area for additional victims of the attack.
United Hatzalah said its volunteer first responders “provided assistance to over 60 wounded people with varying degrees of injuries – critical, serious, moderate and light.”
A spokesperson said that helicopters and ambulances evacuated all of the injured to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, HaEmek [Medical Center] in Afula and Laniado [Hospital] in Netanya.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist army took responsibility for the assault, claiming in a statement it “launched a squadron of attack drones at an IDF training camp for the Golani Brigade in Binyamina, south of Haifa.”
A BBC report said that many of the injured seem to have been in a communal canteen at the time and were caught unaware. Images circulating on social media appear to show an empty mess hall with a hole in the roof.
According to Channel 12, two drones approached Israeli territory from the sea. While one was shot down, the second was not intercepted due to its apparent low altitude. No air-raid sirens were activated prior to the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on the strike. Shortly after the attack, the military said it intercepted another drone launched from Lebanon at Israel through the “northern maritime area”.
“Continue to obey the directives of [IDF] Home Front Command, which are updated as needed,” the military told Israelis in the statement.
Earlier on Sunday, 28 IDF soldiers battling Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon were wounded by enemy anti-tank fire. Two troops sustained serious wounds, and the rest were moderately and lightly wounded.
Meanwhile, according to the Jersalem Post, the IDF announced on Sunday that it had carried out 200 air strikes against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon over the last 24 hours.
The military stated that it maintained four divisions destroying the terror group's south Lebanon infrastructure but was still failing to reduce rocket fire on the home front substantially.
