The rocket struck an army position near the Lebanon border. An alert sounded in the area, though the soldiers did not manage to seek shelter in time, according to a preliminary probe by the Israel Defense Forces.
The troops, who all serve with the Givati Brigade, were taken to a hospital for treatment. Five were listed in serious condition and three were lightly hurt, the army said.
Among those lightly injured by the rocket strike was the son of Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, the minister’s office said.
The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes in Beirut overnight and throughout Friday, as officers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reportedly fled the Lebanese capital amid Israel’s attacks.
According to the IDF, overnight strikes hit 10 multi-story buildings that were being used by the terror group in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh.
The buildings, including a drone warehouse and the headquarters of Hezbollah’s executive council, “were intended to be used by Hezbollah to advance and carry out numerous attacks against IDF troops and the State of Israel,” the military said in a statement.
A wave of strikes in the afternoon in the Dahiyeh struck a headquarters of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as several Hezbollah sites.
According to the IDF, the headquarters served the IRGC air force. In addition, the military said it struck three Hezbollah headquarters — of the terror group’s naval force, executive council, and financial division.
The IDF strikes in Beirut were preceded by a mass evacuation order for residents in all four major neighborhoods of the Dahiyeh. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned Friday that the displacement risked a “humanitarian disaster.” The UN said Israel’s blanket evacuation orders raised “serious concern” under international law. Israel says the evacuations are meant to prevent harm to civilians as it targets terror infrastructure.
The IDF also issued evacuation orders in Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon and in the country’s eastern Beqaa Valley.
Hezbollah, for its part, issued its own evacuation warning for Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon on Friday, apparently in a sardonic rejoinder to Israel’s Dahiyeh evacuation order. Israel has said it is not evacuating northern Israeli towns, and instead has launched a ground and air offensive aimed at pushing Hezbollah away from the border.
And unlike the hundreds of thousands who have answered Israel’s call to leave in Lebanon, there is little evidence of mass departures from northern Israel, despite a rise in rocket attacks from Lebanon.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Friday that the military has killed more than 70 Hezbollah operatives in strikes in Lebanon since Hezbollah joined the fray.
Among those killed in Israel’s strikes in Lebanon since Monday are Iranian officials and senior officers in Iran-backed terror groups, according to the military, Arabic media reports, and the organizations themselves.
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