Israeli rescue services said almost 40 people were wounded Sunday in a drone strike in the central city of Binyamina, three of them critically. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group claimed responsibility for one of the most serious strikes to land in Israel in a year of war.
Israel’s advanced air-defense systems mean that it’s rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Israeli media reported that two drones were launched from Lebanon, and the military said one was intercepted.
It was not immediately clear who was hurt, military members or civilians, or what was hit.
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Hezbollah said in a statement that it targeted an Israeli military training camp in retaliation for two Israeli strikes in Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people.
It was the second time in two days that a drone has struck in Israel. On Saturday, during the Israeli holiday of Yom Kippur, a drone struck in a suburb of Tel Aviv, causing damage but no injuries.
The latest strike came on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defense system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missiles.
Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — both Iran-backed militant groups — and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. One strike late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing the parents and their six children, ages 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies there.
“They were safe, while he was sleeping, and he and all his children died,” said the man’s brother, Mohammad Abu Ghali. Women stroked the body bags, in tears.
Israel’s 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.