The UAV launched on Sunday by the Hezbollah terrorist organization hit an army base adjacent to Binyamina, the IDF announced early Monday morning, hours after the attack that injured at least 67.
Four IDF soldiers were killed in the incident and an additional seven were severely injured, according to the IDF. All the injured individuals have been evacuated to hospitals and their families have been notified.
The IDF said that the incident is being examined.
"The IDF shares in the grief of the bereaved families and will continue to accompany them," the IDF said in a statement, adding, "We ask to refrain from spreading rumors and the names of injured individuals, and to respect the families."
The drone attack is the highest number of casualties in a single event since the October 7 massacre.
Hezbollah launched two UAVs on Sunday evening. Air defense systems intercepted one of them after alarms in the Western Galilee, including in Acre and Nahariya. But one of the two UAVs penetrated deep into Israel, and the explosion occurred in the Binyamina area without triggering an alarm.
"There was a crazy boom, without any warning," said an eyewitness.
Emek Medical Center in Afula declared a mass-casualty event. Some of the injured were evacuated by helicopter to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer and Rambam Hospital in Haifa, and others were also evacuated to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera and Emek Hospital in Afula.
An initial IDF investigation into the drone strike revealed two drones - apparently the Sayyad 107 model - infiltrated Israeli airspace from Lebanon via the sea, the first of which was intercepted. The second was pursued by Israeli Air Force units but was lost at some point before it detonated. The military is now looking into the reason for this and the lack of alarms sounding in the area. Shortly after 11 p.m., alarms were sounded in Haifa following a barrage from Lebanon; the Air Force said that five rockets were intercepted.
The Sayyad 107 has a flight range of about 100 km and a wingspan of 1.5 to 2 meters. UAVs of this type have penetrated Israel's airspace dozens of times throughout the war and caused damage to sites and buildings. This UAV model hit a building in Nahariya last month and dozens of other sites. Among the terrorist targets that were attacked at the beginning of the Northern Arrows operation were also caches of these UAVs, which the IDF spokesman at the time described as "armed UAVs."
An eyewitness to the explosion said: "There was a crazy boom. The iron door buckled, we didn't understand what happened and suddenly something penetrated the ceiling. We didn't hear anything, only the massive explosion. There was no alarm. We ran toward the injured and then I saw that they needed a tourniquet. There were a lot of injured people full of blood. We helped them get to the shelter and waited there."
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the mass-casualty attack, which occurred in the Ramot Menashe area, and claimed that it was carried out in response to IDF attacks in Lebanon and in particular in Beirut.
Evacuating victims of the drone attack to hospitals
(Videos: Gil Nehushtan, Elad Garshgoran, Lior El-Hai, Raanan Ben Tzur, Dana Kopel, MDA spokespersons, Rambam spokespersons)
"Hezbollah can still protect Lebanon and the people," the terrorist organization's statement said. A Hezbollah source quoted in Al-Jazeera claimed that the terror organization launched "swarms of UAVs" in the attack. "Hezbollah's capabilities are still strong and capable of reaching deep into Israel," the source claimed.
The Arabic-language Sky News network reported that the UAV was "launched under the cover of a rocket barrage into the Galilee."
The Saudi channel Al-Hadath cited anonymous sources claiming that the UAV in the attack "launched a missile before exploding." It is not the first time such a claim has been made. In May, Hezbollah claimed that it attacked for the first time in the Metula region with a UAV "equipped with S5 missiles" - which were launched before the UAV exploded on its target.
he serious incident comes in the wake of several other serious injuries recorded by Hezbollah's incessant barrages on Israeli communities at the same time as the battles that are currently taking place in the IDF's limited ground operation in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday, Dvir Sharvit, 43, and Revital Yehud, 45, were killed by a direct hit in Kiryat Shmona.
Israel is also still struggling to deal with the threat of Hezbollah's UAVs, and an example of this came on the eve of Yom Kippur with the direct hit of a UAV launched from Lebanon on a sheltered housing facility for the elderly in Herzliya, in which there were no casualties after the residents followed the directives of the Home Front Command.
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