Three soldiers were injured, one seriously, when a drone packed with explosives launched from Lebanese territory crashed and blew up in an area near the northern community of Metula, the Israeli military said Thursday.
The attack was claimed by the Hezbollah terror group, which said it had targeted Israel Defense Forces targets with a missile-armed drone, as cross-border hostilities continued to spiral following the killing of a senior Hezbollah field commander earlier this week.
One of the troops was hospitalized in serious condition, the military said, and the other two were lightly hurt as a result of the blast.
Hezbollah said it had fired an “attack drone carrying two S5 rockets” that targeted a vehicle at a position in Metula.
It marked the first time Hezbollah has used a drone that launches missiles, rather than explosive-laden aircraft which it has used repeatedly amid the war.
Footage published by the terror group showed the drone flying over the army position near Metula, before it launched the two S5 rockets. Moments later, the drone is seen crashing and exploding in the area.
The IDF said it was investigating the incident, which came hours after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets at the Golan Heights in two separate barrages.
The terror group claimed that it had fired some 60 Katyusha rockets at three military bases in the Golan Heights area, setting off rocket warning sirens throughout the area, although the IDF said that the number of rockets that crossed the border in the attack was closer to 40 and that the Iron Dome system had intercepted some of the rockets.
The military also said that the repeated sirens that sounded in the evacuated northern border community of Zar’it were triggered by five projectiles launched from Lebanon.
No injuries were reported as a result of either the rocket barrages or the projectiles.
Across the border, the IDF said it carried out a drone strike on a vehicle with two Hezbollah operatives in it, near the southern Lebanon towns of Qana and Seddiqine. Lebanese media reports said two people were killed in the strike and Hezbollah named two operatives killed while engaged in operations targeting Israel