Hezbollah fighters shoot down an Israeli drone in Lebanon and fire rockets at an Israeli base

BEIRUT– The militant group Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired rockets 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, claiming that such planes had been targeting militants and civilian homes. The exchange of shots throughout the The border between Lebanon and Israel has intensified in recent weeks with Israel’s military advance on the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

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 in Lebanese territory. “The incident is under review,” the military said.

The Hermes 900 Kochav is a medium-altitude, long-endurance drone that can carry four anti-tank guided missiles.

Hezbollah said Saturday that its fighters also attacked an Israeli army base in the border town of Kiryat Shmona with Burkan rockets, “achieving direct hits, causing a fire and destroying part of it.” Burkan rockets can carry a warhead weighing between 300 kilograms (661 lb) and 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).

The Israeli army confirmed that a rocket hit a military base in Kiryat Shmona without giving details.

Israeli media reported the rocket attack on Kiryat Shmona and published images showing significant damage to infrastructure. No victims were reported.

Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli drone attack on a motorcycle near the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm wounded two people, the state-run National News Agency said. The agency reported another drone strike on Saturday afternoon in a village near the southern city of Nabatiyeh.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in the coastal village of Adloun killed one woman and wounded several others on Friday night, the agency reported.

Hezbollah began attacking Israeli military posts along the Lebanon-Israel border a day after 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.

In the last seven months, more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them combatants, but there are also more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since October.