Hezbollah says targeted Israel base to avenge Arouri, Tawil killings

Hezbollah said it targeted a command base in Israel Tuesday in retaliation for the killings of one of its commanders in Lebanon and the Hamas deputy leader.

The movement said it targeted the "enemy's northern command centre" in the city of Safad with several explosive drones as part of its response to the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri on January 2 and Hezbollah field commander Wissam Tawil on Monday.

The Israeli army confirmed that a "hostile aircraft" had come down at one of its bases in the north.

It said that its air defense system was activated to try to intercept a “hostile aircraft,” and that the aircraft fell at the base.

The Israeli army added that no damage was caused to the base.

Safad is a city away from where daily Israel-Hezbollah skirmishes have been taking place.

In Lebanon’s southern village of Ghandouriyeh, about 10 kilometers from the border, an Israeli drone strike hit a car on Tuesday, killing three Hezbollah members, according to two security officials and a Hezbollah official. It came a day after al-Tawil was killed in a drone strike in a nearby village.

Tuesday’s attacks relatively far from areas of operations along the Lebanon-Israel border show the rising tensions along the frontier since Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military posts following the deadly Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hezbollah says by keeping Israel’s northern front active, they are helping reduce pressure on Gaza.

Hezbollah has lost 150 fighters in the near-daily exchanges of fire.

There was no immediate word on the identities of the three Hezbollah members who were killed in the strike on Ghandouriyeh,