Central Israel Targeted In Overnight Drone Attacks; Biden Says US Won’t Support Attack On Iran Nuke Facilities

New Delhi: The Israeli Defence Forces Thursday said it downed two hostile aircraft, with the third landing in an open area near Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. There are no reports of injuries in the overnight attack, which came as Israeli Jews celebrate the Rosh Hashanah holiday. The development came shortly after the military intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” off the coast of the densely populated Gush Dan metropolitan region, after the sound of loud booms was reported in central Israel.

No injuries occurred in the overnight attack, for which there has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

Here are the top 10 points on this big story:

1. Air raid sirens were activated in numerous communities around the Golan Heights due to a suspected drone attack. Rocket sirens were heard in several other northern Israeli towns, local media reported.
2. No initial reports of injuries or damage after a suspected drone attack targeting Bat Yam. The ambulance service were reported to be treating a number of people hurt while en route to shelters along with others suffering from acute anxiety.
3. The US, a key ally of Israel, has reaffirmed its ironclad commitment to Israel's security. President Joe Biden, however, said he would not support an Israeli attack on Iran nuclear facilities.
4. At least two were killed and 11 wounded in an Israeli strike on central Beirut’s Bashoura neighborhood early Thursday. The airstrike started a fire in an apartment in a multistory building in the residential Bashoura district, not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.
5. Hezbollah-backed Al-Manar TV station said the strike targeted a center of the terror group's health unit. There was no warning issued ahead of the strike.
6. Israel has lost eight of its soldiers in ground operation in southern Lebanon. Tensions in the region have escalated as Israel pledged to retaliate against Iran's ballistic missile barrage.
7. The Israeli military suffered the casualty during "close-range" fighting with Hezbollah. The clashes occurred on the second day of Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
8. Hezbollah said its fighters had engaged Israeli forces in the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras, located about a mile from Avivim, an evacuated Israeli town. The militia claimed it had targeted Avivim with rocket fire.
9. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a brief video message ahead of the Jewish New Year in which he offered his condolences to the families of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon. "We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us," he said.
10. Netanyahu vowed that Israel would return hostages being held in Gaza and the residents displaced by fighting with Hezbollah in the north to their homes, and "guarantee the eternity of Israel."