BEIRUT (AP) — The militant Hezbollah group said it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired missiles at an Israeli military base on Saturday, hours after Israeli drone strikes killed at least one person and wounded several others.
Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked the Hermes 900 Kochav drone and that such aircraft targeted militants and civilian homes. The gun battle along the Lebanon-Israel border has intensified in recent weeks following Israel’s military attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said a surface-to-air missile was fired at a drone operating in Lebanese airspace, adding that it was hit and fell on Lebanese territory. “The incident is under investigation,” the military said.
The Hermes 900 Kochav is a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone that can carry four anti-tank guided missiles.
Hezbollah said on Saturday that its fighters also attacked an Israeli army base in the border town of Kiryat Shmona with Burkan rockets, which “scored direct hits, ignited a fire and destroyed part of it.” Burkan missiles can carry a warhead weighing between 300 kilograms (661 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).
The Israeli military confirmed that a rocket had hit a military base in Kiryat Shmona, without providing further details.
Israeli media reported on the rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona and released images showing significant damage to infrastructure. No casualties have been reported.
Earlier Saturday, an Israeli drone strike on a motorcycle near the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm injured two people, the state news agency said. The agency reported another drone strike in a village near the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Saturday afternoon.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in the coastal town of Adloun killed one woman and injured several others on Friday evening, the agency said.
Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the Lebanon-Israel border a day after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
More than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon in the past seven months, most of them combatants, but also more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. Fifteen soldiers and ten civilians have been killed in Israel since October.
