An American citizen was seriously injured and another American citizen and an IDF soldier were slightly injured by an anti-tank missile that was fired at noon on Sunday from Lebanon at a building in the Zar'it moshav in the Western Galilee. The injured were evacuated for medical treatment to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
The IDF is investigating why the American citizens were in the area at the time of the attack.The family of the injured soldier has been notified.
The seriously injured American citizen, 31, was treated hospital's trauma room, where the medical teams placed him in an induced coma and on a respirator. He will be moved to the general intensive care unit. The other American citizen, 42, and the soldier, 25, were lightly injured, and are undergoing tests.
Earlier on Sunday, a 28-year-old man was seriously injured by a direct hit from a rocket in the village of Kfar Zaytim near Tiberias. The launch occurred during a Hezbollah rocket barrage into the Lower Galilee, a revenge attack by the Shia terrorist organization for Saturday's assassination of a senior terrorist deep in Lebanon.
Mimi Daniel, a resident of Kfar Zeitim, and her husband were at home when sirens suddenly broke the silence in the sleepy little town. "I woke up to the sirens and we ran to the safe room. After about fifteen minutes, we saw shrapnel in the house, glass shards. The young man was injured near us," she told Ynet, emphasizing that the damage could have been much worse. "It surprised us."
Her son, Hadar, showed the Ynet team shrapnel that had penetrated his home, including the living room.
David Daniel, 74, also a resident of Kfar Zeitim, reported that his home was also damaged in the attack. "The shutters flew off," he said, noting that his shed was also damaged. He expressed surprise at the unusual rocket fire targeting the town.
Another resident, Daniel Pesach, recounted, "There was a very loud explosion around 10:30 a.m. I ran to the safe room, and only after the rocket fell did the siren go off. It's surprising that it landed here. It's because of the proximity to the military base nearby. [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan] Nasrallah knows which bases are here, which is why he fired at the base - and it's fortunate that only one person was injured."
Hezbollah claimed that on Sunday morning it launched "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at bases in the northern region, "west of Tiberias." The terrorist organization said that the barrage was a response to the assassination of Meitham Alattar, a senior member of the group's air defense unit, who was killed in a drone strike on his car in the Baalbek area, approximately 70 miles from the Israeli border. This retaliatory barrage follows an even heavier barrage of over 200 rockets and drones last Thursday in response to the assassination of a high-ranking field commander.
The IDF reported that at least 20 projectiles crossed from Lebanon into the Lower Galilee in Sunday morning's barrage, with some being successfully intercepted by air defenses. As with previous barrages, rocket impacts caused a series of brush fires, with firefighting teams reporting "multiple fire sites" in fields around Tiberias, including the Arbel Nature Reserve, which was closed to visitors due to the blaze.
Based on Hezbollah's claim of responsibility for the barrage on Sunday, it is probably that the terror group's response to the elimination of Alattar is not yet over.
The IDF spokesman reported that about 20 launches were detected in the Sunday morning barrage that crossed from Lebanon into the lower Galilee, and some of them were successfully intercepted by the air defense systems. As in previous barrages, falling rockets and shrapnel caused a series of fires, and the fire service reported "multiple fire centers" in open areas in the area Tiberias, including the Arbel nature reserve - which caught fire and was closed to tourists.
According to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, as of Sunday, approximately 25,866 acres of land have burned in northern Israel since the beginning of the year, with half of the fires occurring in nature reserves and national parks and the other half in forests and fields.
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Downed rocket sparks fire in Arbel National Park nature reserve
(Photo: Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
Thursday and Friday's fires, following the large barrage from Lebanon, consumed approximately 3,129 acres - constituting about 12% of the total fires in northern Israel so far this year. The most significantly affected area is the Golan Heights region, with approximately 12,355 acres burned, followed by the Upper Galilee with approximately 10,625 acres. Nationwide, approximately 47,743 acres of land have burned since the beginning of the year.
In response to the barrage and following the identification of the source of the rocket fire, the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike on the Hezbollah military structure from which the anti-tank missile was fired. In addition, the IDF struck a military structure in the area of Maaroub and terrorist infrastructure in the area of Naqoura. In addition, the IAF launched a wave of strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, with the first target being attacked in the town of Marwahin, north of Tyre, about 20 kilometers from Metula. Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese network Al Mayadeen reported an attack in the southern Lebanon village of Ayta ash-Shab as well.