Israeli soldiers killed in Hezbollah attack as airstrike ‘kills woman and children’ at food centre in Gaza

Four Israeli soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded in a Hezbollah drone attack on central Israel in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel invaded southern Lebanon two weeks ago.

The Hezbollah drones wounded 61 soldiers after hitting a base near Binyamina, a town around 20 miles south of Haifa on Sunday, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah claimed to have targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to distract Israeli air defence systems during the drone assault.

The strike came just after Washington said it would provide Israel with an anti-ballistic missile defence system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) as well as troops to help defend the Jewish state.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj Gen Patrick Ryder said the Thaad system would help bolster Israel’s air defences following Iran’s missile attacks on the country in April and October. The country already has an Iron Dome missile defence system.

“This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defence of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” Maj Gen Ryder said.

The mission marks the first significant deployment of US troops to Israel since the war in Gaza began on 7 October last year.

US officials have been encouraging Israel to avoid targeting Iran’s nuclear, oil and gas sites out of fear that it could spark an even larger escalation that upends the global economy.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed and 40 injured in northern Gaza, on Monday after Israeli tank shells hit people queuing for food, Palestinian medics said.

Medics said an Israeli drone had also opened fire where dozens of residents had gathered to receive food in Jabalia, one of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. Women and children were among the victims, they said.

It came after four people were killed and 40 injured in an Israeli airstrike on central Gaza on Monday morning, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel claimed it targeted a Hamas command centre embedded inside a hospital compound in the Deir al-Balah region, where refugees were also sheltering.

Pictures and video showed an inferno ripping through canvas tents as people rushed to put out the fires with buckets of water.

Separately, Israel’s military said it had struck 200 targets linked to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours.

At least 21 people died after an Israeli air strike on an apartment building in the north of Lebanon, according to the Red Cross, although it was not immediately clear what the target was.

Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – both Iran-backed militant groups – and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.

The conflict dramatically escalated in September with Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders.

Israel launched a ground operation earlier this month.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since September, according to the country’s health ministry. It has not said how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 54 people have been killed in rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers, according to Israeli authorities.