It’s another day in the State of Israel, and like nearly every other day since October 8, 2023, a wildfire ignited by Hezbollah rocket fire devoured and blackened a forested area in the north, this one in Moshav Ya’ara, located near Ma’alot-Tarshiha in the Ma’ale Yosef Regional Council district, close to the border with Lebanon.
A separate barrage of rockets fired by the Iranian proxy aimed at the Galilee Panhandle city of Kiryat Shmona, a few kilometers south of Metula, also sent Israeli firefighters to work extinguishing the hungry flames.
The Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya terrorist organization in Lebanon claimed responsibility for Monday afternoon’s attack on Kiryat Shmona, but no attack is launched from Lebanon without the permission of the Hezbollah terror organization, which is controlled by Iran.
Earlier in the day, a Hezbollah combat drone attack scored a direct hit on the eighth floor of a 10-story high-rise apartment building in the northern coastal city of Nahariya, just a few buildings away from a kindergarten filled with small children.
Photos and footage uploaded to social media showed considerable damage to an apartment in the building, where the UAV blew up against the exterior wall of a bathroom, creating a hole in the structure and smashing the ceramic furnishings and walls in the room. No physical injuries were reported in the attack.
The drone was one of two that crossed the border into Israeli territory; the second landed in an open area. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming the target was the Israeli “Shraga” military base, located about three kilometers (two miles) south of Nahariya.
IDF Chief of General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi concluded a situational assessment of the northern arena late Monday afternoon with members of the General Staff Forum following the attack on Nahariya.
“Hezbollah’s strike on a residential building this morning in Nahariya is a serious incident, as is the fire directed at the citizens of the north,” Halevi said.
“The IDF is … in a high state of readiness with operational plans ready, prepared for any mission required,” he warned. It is believed Israeli leaders are mulling a final decision about the timing of a major ground operation into southern Lebanon to end the incessant attacks on the north by Hezbollah.
The terror group also took responsibility for a separate, large barrage of Katyusha rockets fired at the Western Galilee. Some were intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense Array, and others landed in open areas.
Two anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) were also fired by Hezbollah at an IDF position near the community of Shlomi on Monday afternoon, igniting another wildfire.
ATGMs, which travel at very short ranges, are particularly dangerous because they do not require high altitudes to reach their targets, and therefore often escape detection by radar.
As a result, ATGMs also do not trigger the lifesaving Red Alert incoming rocket sirens that warn Israelis to head for safe spaces and can be particularly dangerous.
According to Israeli government figures released Monday, nearly 63,500 Israelis remain displaced from their homes along the northern border since October 8, 2023. The figure includes nearly 16,000 children who have been forced to attend new school and live in temporary housing due to the attacks.