The Mercury News

Attack by Hezbollah injures 14 soldiers

- By Euan Ward, Ronen Bergman and Adam Rasgon

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibi­lity for a cross-border drone and missile attack in northern Israel on Wednesday that the Israeli military said had injured 14 soldiers, six of them severely.

It was one of the most damaging attacks in recent months by Hezbollah, Iran's most powerful regional proxy, in its continuing clashes with Israel. The attack came a day after Israel's targeted killing of two Hezbollah commanders as fears continue to grow of a broader conflict between Israel and Tehran, which mounted a wide aerial attack on Israel over the weekend.

An internal Israeli army memo said an initial investigat­ion found that Hezbollah had fired two antitank rockets at an Israeli Bedouin border village, Arab al-Aramshe, before dispatchin­g an exploding drone. An Israeli military spokespers­on declined to comment on the memo.

A senior Israeli defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operationa­l issues, expressed concern about Hezbollah's apparent ability to determine soldiers' whereabout­s and subsequent­ly target them.

Hezbollah said its attack on the village was in response to the Israeli airstrikes a day earlier that Israel's military said had killed the commanders. Those strikes triggered a series of retaliator­y attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military bases and barracks.

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